Training insights: Agile – aim higher, react faster

“I suspect that many of you are already more agile than you think you are,” said Mark Williams, founder of Agile Outside IT, in his address to attendees of our Local Authorities Internal Audit Virtual Forum on 25 November. He went on to ask how long it took them to deliver their observations and conclusions to their stakeholders. Answers varied from “ages” and “more than three months” to “less than an hour”, but most came in at less than a month.

Williams defined “being agile” as a mix of “mindset plus tools”. While not everyone wants to take on every aspect of agile ways of working or terminology, he argued that all internal audit teams could benefit from knowing more about these and working out what elements they could incorporate to make their audit planning and reporting faster, more relevant and more efficient.

“Go small,” he advised. “You can’t crystal-gaze the future, so go small to deal with unpredictability. You need rapid feedback loops so that you can constantly test and learn as you go.” For example, if you currently do an annual audit plan, look at doing a six-month, plus six-month one. Then progress to a three-month cycle and aim for a 12-month continuous rolling process. Can you do shorter, more “nimble” audits, can you build your audit report iteratively over the course of the audit, so stakeholders get regular feedback throughout the process? Can you break work into cycles of one or two weeks (“sprints”)?

“Ask how rapid your feedback loops are, how long does it take to get value to your stakeholders and can you speed this up,” he said.

Second, Williams advised attendees to limit the amount of work in progress – “start less to finish more”. He cited research that found that people left to focus on a task that requires them to be thorough and attentive are less prone to errors than those asked to switch between different projects.

“Constantly switching can make you 20 per cent less efficient, so it’s better to do two ten-week audits in succession than to attempt to run both simultaneously over 20 weeks,” he advised. “Managers may oversee several projects, but it helps if you can keep teams stable and allow them the luxury of focus.”

Williams’ third key tip was to listen to feedback. He urged audit leaders to engage stakeholders in more frequent conversations and to offer feedback regularly on both audit progress and planning. “Ask for regular feedback from the audit committee and look to share what you’ve learnt with relevant stakeholders as you go, not just at the end of the reporting process,” he said. “There are different ways of doing this, but they are all valid.”

All these developments require you to be more flexible, agile and responsive, he added. “It’s important to listen to the feedback and show you can change scope if necessary and share your reasons for this.”

For those looking to become more agile, Williams’ advice is “think big, start small and learn fast”. Have a bold, compelling and brave vision for the future of the audit department and start small areas of change across the audit lifecycle, or perhaps focus on one team and one audit. “The most important element is mindset – this is the starting point for any audit team that wants to change.” 

This article was first published in January 2021.