What is Agile Oversight?
Primarily, agile products highlight issues requiring immediate action for oversight officials or legislative stakeholders and others who have requested reviews of high-risk areas. Agile products can inform, without requiring actions, by providing transparency and ensuring key agency leadership, stakeholders, and the public have access to information more quickly.
Incorporating agile project management principles into how your office conducts its work allows you to issue products more quickly, be more adaptable to changes, and focus on the essential work required to issue products—all of which helps your office prevent and root out waste, fraud, and abuse during a crises.
Key benefits of agile auditing
Enhanced responsiveness to changing risks
Agile Auditing enables auditors to quickly adapt and respond to the dynamic nature of risks. By embracing iterative and incremental audit cycles, auditors can continuously reassess risks and adjust their audit procedures accordingly.
Early identification and mitigation of issues
Through its iterative nature, Agile Auditing emphasizes early and continuous testing and feedback. By conducting audit procedures in short cycles, auditors can identify issues and areas for improvement at an early stage. This proactive approach allows for timely remediation and reduces the likelihood of issues escalating.
Improved communication and stakeholder engagement
Agile Auditing emphasizes open and transparent communication among team managers members and stakeholders. Regular meetings, such as daily stand-ups, facilitate real-time information sharing and alignment of efforts. By fostering a collaborative culture, auditors can leverage the collective knowledge and expertise of the team, leading to better decision-making and more effective audit outcomes.
What situations should agile oversight be used?
Agile Auditing is particularly suitable for various situations that demand a flexible and iterative approach to auditing. While not limited to these scenarios, several common situations may necessitate the use of Agile Auditing.
Rapidly changing environments
Limited time or resources for a comprehensive audit
High-risk areas requiring immediate monitoring
Projects with dynamic requirements
How to apply agile oversight to Yellow Book audits?
Traditional performance audits under GAGAS can take 9-15 months perform. Agile auditing can cut this time down to as little as six weeks when narrowly scoped and efficiently performed.
Check out our video course on agile oversight for government auditors where we discuss how to implement agile practices in an audit office and look at case studies of offices who have done so successfully.