In today's fast-paced landscape, the risk environment is constantly changing. Strategic and operational risks are ever-evolving, driven by external or internal factors — or both — causing risk exposure levels to escalate faster than ever before.
Internal audit teams are challenged to ensure that assurance goes beyond passively reviewing past events. We must offer deep insights considering macro-level organizational challenges and the current risk environment to advise management and the audit committee on navigating these challenges successfully.
Stakeholder expectations of assurance providers are rising in tandem with risk management pressures. Against this landscape, it has been worth critically assessing the inherent weaknesses of the traditional audit approach and how elements can be redesigned to deliver greater organizational value. Wolters Kluwer TeamMate's Touchstone Insights for Internal Audit report reveals that more than 70% of organizations are either planning to or are executing an Agile audit methodology (see box, below right).