Improving

Audit
Engagement
Agility

© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

How Audit Departments
Can Improve Audit
Engagement Agility
Our 2018 survey of auditors on audit agility tested a range of potential ways that
audit engagements can be more agile and flexible. The survey results, outlined
below, show that agility can be targeted both in department audit planning and
individual audit engagement scoping. Approaches such as introducing a flexible
engagement planning methodology, allocating resources more flexibly during
engagements and providing clear guidance on how auditors can change course
during fieldwork can all improve engagement agility. However, CAEs express a
higher current state of agility than auditors, showing there is room for
improvement in this area.

Key findings
• Audit managers are 12.5% less likely than CAEs to agree their engagements
are agile.

• To improve audit execution agility, audit managers and directors can work on
staffing and resource reallocation during engagements as well as
empowering auditors to change course during execution if necessary.

• Over half of the surveyed auditors agree aspects of agile auditing are taking
place, but less than 15% agree strongly that these practices are being
conducted.

© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 2

Improving Audit Agility
Given the information overload faced by today’s organizations, an audit can
only reliably target emerging risks if it has empowered auditors at all levels. To
keep pace with constant changes in both the organization and its risks, the
audit department should update its audit plan frequently, modify engagement
scopes and reallocate staff and resources as necessary. Our 2018 audit
agility and risk sensing (auditor) survey suggests audit departments can
achieve this by increasing the flexibility of their risk assessment and audit
planning, engagement scoping and engagement execution (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Agility Improvement Flowchart

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Risk Assessment Engagement Engagement
and Audit Planning Scoping Execution

Source: Gartner (October 2018)

Improvement Areas
Very few of the audit departments we surveyed agree strongly they currently
deploy sufficient agility in scoping and fieldwork. Over 90% recognize they
could be more agile in these areas (see Figure 2). Most surveyed auditors
also say they need to be more flexible in engagement staffing, with 59% of
surveyed audit departments saying they do not bring on staff as necessary
once an engagement has started.

This picture of large potential for increased audit agility is further supported by
survey data showing only a small number of audit engagement managers
(3%) strongly agree they are highly effective at changing engagement
planning to align with updated risk reviews.[1] Furthermore, only 14% of staff
auditors agree they have clear guidance to change course in engagements.

© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Figure 2: Scoping and Fieldwork Agility Improvement Areas

Percentage of respondents

90
84
80

70 65
59
60

50 48

39
40

30
24
20
20

10 6 6
4 4
1
0
Scopes changes Staff brought on as Highly effective in Clear guidance for
multiple times necessary scope change based auditors to change
throughout on risk review course
engagement
Strongly agree (always)
Agree & somewhat agree (70%-90% of the time)
Number of respondents = 95-303
Source: Gartner 2018 Audit Benchmarking Survey Disagree (less than 30% of the time)

A difference in perception
CAEs and all other levels of auditors differ in their perception of audit
engagement agility (see Figure 3). Compared with CAEs, auditors usually
have a more conservative view of engagement flexibility. To align audit
engagement managers’ execution with the expectations of the CAE,
engagement managers should be encouraged to provide auditors with more
freedom in changing the scope and type of audit activity. Audit engagement
managers should also be encouraged to properly review new risk information
in each engagement to evaluate whether any changes are necessary.

© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 4

Figure 3: Agility Engagement Perceptions of CAEs vs. Other Auditors

Percentage of respondents

100% Audit Managers/Directors CAEs

80% 78%
80% 73%
67%
60% 61%
60%

40%

20%

0%
Encouraged to evaluate Effectively review new risk Free to change the type of
scope change information audit activities

Source: Gartner (October 2018)

Weak commitment
There is currently low adoption of five specific tactics for increasing audit
engagement flexibility (see Figure 4). Overall, 15% or fewer auditors say agile
measures such as complementing risk assessments with new risk
information, proactively planning for engagement scope changes, and
applying flexible engagement methodologies are consistently used.

Figure 4: Agility Commitment

Percentage of respondents

Solicits auditor's feedback on risk change 13

49

Adjust coverage according to new risk 11

66

Reallocate resources according to risk 11

65

Proactively plan for canceling engagement 12

44

Methodology enables flexible planning 15

62

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Number of respondents = 95-303
Source: Gartner 2018 Audit
Benchmarking Survey Strongly agree (always) Agree & somewhat agree

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Conclusion
To conduct audits in this volatile business environment under tight budget
constraints, audit teams need to draw fast but accurate conclusions and
rapidly adapt to change. To get auditors at all levels to be more agile is a
critical challenge for CAEs and audit departments.

Our survey results show some of the areas audit leaders can work on to
quickly improve its engagement agility:

▪ Enable scope changes that address emerging risks by promoting dynamic

audit engagement planning and flexible resource allocation.

▪ Encourage proactive planning to add or cancel audit engagements during

the execution of the audit plan.

▪ Empower auditors with more freedom during fieldwork by providing clear

instructions on how to change course where necessary.

▪ Educate the audit department on the benefits of adopting agile audit

approaches.

About This Research

This research is based on our 2018 audit agility and risk sensing survey of
303 staff auditors and a survey of 88 CAEs, representing a diverse set of
industries, countries and organization sizes.

Endnote
[1] Gartner 2018 Audit Benchmarking (Auditors) Survey

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 Contact Us
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Email: gartnerbusinessleaders@gartner.com
Web: gartner.com/go/audit

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