Internal Audit Quality

Chapter 4Internally Assessing Quality

Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

—Aristotle

Effective managers have a deep understanding of their organization and staff and measure performance to determine how well they are delivering against their objectives. They celebrate successes while embracing failings as opportunities to improve performance.

Chief audit executives should develop a suite of tools for assessing internal audit quality. This will often include ongoing processes for determining quality as part of daily activities, as well as processes for measuring performance on a periodic basis.

Internal quality assessments can be linked to performance processes such as maturity models or program logic. They may incorporate benchmarking, and can be used as a precursor to an external quality assessment.

Ongoing Internal Monitoring and Maturity Models

Ongoing monitoring processes are not unique to internal audit. Good managers should have in place different processes for ensuring they achieve their business objectives. These should cover strategy, risk management, resourcing, staff management and performance, and operational processes. Assessments should include both conformance with professional standards (compliance drivers of quality) and delivery of value (demand drivers of quality), and incorporate the identification and implementation of better practice.

Thinking about internal audit quality through the ...