Measuring Performance and Driving Improvements in Audit Ways of Working

Most audit functions recognize the need to measure their performance and to drive continuous improvement. Improvement initiatives for audit (and associated metrics) vary from case to case, but may include making improvements to staff utilization, making better use of audit software, and training and development for the audit function. These activities reflect IIA standards that auditors should: “improve their proficiency and the effectiveness and quality of their services”. Lean ways of working demand that one can measure the performance and added value of audit and continuously drive improvement, using processes (such as the assignment methodology) and systems (such as audit software) as an important way of supporting productivity and value add, but not as an end in their own right. At AstraZeneca one of the key changes one made after the lean review of audit was to overhaul the audit assignment methodology.