Agile Internal Audit: Transforming the Profession

Simply stated, Agile Internal Audit works

Overview

More than four years ago, Deloitte recognized the potential of Agile in transforming and upgrading the internal audit profession. Since that time, we’ve been a leader in applying Agile IA, helping functions embrace Agile as a means of enhancing quality, speed, responsiveness, and adaptability.

As positive outcomes continue to accumulate, and the potential for even greater gains becomes apparent, we recently conducted a comprehensive survey on the use of Agile in Internal Audit. As a pioneer in the application of Agile in Internal Audit, Deloitte is pleased to provide these survey results, overlaid with our insights and experience as we worked through challenging moments, collected practical knowledge, and earned a few battle scars along the way. We hope you find this report useful as you consider whether Agile is right for your internal audit group.

In conducting our survey, we reached out to organizations around the globe to document Agile ways of working within Internal Audit. We tallied responses from 181 organizations, making this the largest survey of Agile in Internal Audit ever conducted.

Highlights:

• This is our largest survey of Agile in Internal Audit to date.
• We’ve outlined our discoveries through the survey results including the benefits of Agile IA, how COVID-19 impacted the adoption and what the potholes in the road to agility were.
• The vast majority of respondents realized gains across multiple categories through their implementation of Agile IA, often above and beyond their initial drivers for adoption.
• The percentage of functions reporting benefits through Agile IA (by benefit category)

Turbocharge your Agile adoption

In helping organizations overcome the identified barriers, we compiled a compendium of key lessons learned, including putting leaders out front, stabilizing your IA teams, appointing an agile coach, and challenging yourself to keep improving. We’ve noted certain actions that can help sustain momentum and accelerate progress.

Just as it transformed software development, Agile is profoundly altering Internal Audit. At Deloitte, we have witnessed many trends within Internal Audit come and go over the years, but we believe that Agile IA will have unique staying power.

Complete details and recommended actions are laid out in more detail in the perspective. Download the report