Abstract
The time has come for internal audit functions to acknowledge the vicissitudes of changing business landscapes influencing the internal audit practices. The rapid developments in technology have influenced the move away from traditional processes and systems of conducting business. This is further influenced by the everlasting changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in business landscapes and the risk of the unknown. Even prior to the pandemic events, the IAF has historically been interested in the impact of introducing emerging technologies due to the direct relationship between digitisation and auditing activities. It is on this basis that the function needs to evaluate whether the traditional audit approach used to conduct audit engagements is still relevant. Failure to attend to these changes could result in the function’s inability to provide the value as envisaged in the Standards, and there is a threat towards the function's relevancy.
The study adopts a mixed methodology research design, where both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used to gather primary and secondary data, to best answer the research questions and achieve the research objectives. The study’s population was the members of the Institute of Internal Audit South Africa. As part of phase one of the study, secondary data in the form of a literature review was obtained and analysed using the grounded theory method. The results of the literature review were cascaded into the questionnaire using closed-ended questions. Phase two of the study involved sharing the questionnaire in one of the Institute of Internal Audit South Africa’s newsletters, which is shared monthly with its members. The responses to the questionnaire were interpreted quantitatively, using descriptive and thematic statistics to understand the data and formulate data results.
The study found that although the traditional audit approach is widely used, it is necessary to adopt an alternative approach that can better respond to the challenges faced by the internal audit practice. The findings indicate that the Agile auditing approach should be used as an alternative to the traditional audit approach, which adopts the Agile methodologies of Agile Scrum and Kanban to present the Agile
The application of Agile Auditing in the ICT audit approach
Scrumban, applicable to all audit engagements, including the information and communications technology audit engagements.