A Review of Agile Internal Auditing: Retrospective and Prospective

Abstract

Today, audit stakeholders are demanding speedy information on audit assurance, compliance, advisory practices, the anticipation of risks, and effective controls for decision making and to monitor agents with minimum efforts. They want that internal audit function to contribute greater value to the business. Failure to demonstrate how internal audit function adds value will eventually result in stakeholders viewing internal audit as irrelevant. Therefore, this article reviews the agile internal auditing from a retrospective and prospective angle and provides some insights into the concept, history, need, methodology, characteristics, implementation process, advantages, and challenges with the help of a literature review. The article focuses more on Agile methodology as applied by internal auditors to provide speedy information. The agile approach is particularly, appropriate for complex audits which require a focused team coupled with experienced auditors to follow shorter audit cycles and faster delivery of services to its clients. Since, the agile internal audit function's agility will vary widely from one company to another, due to the size and organizational culture, the article concludes that academics, researchers, and practitioners need to provide deeper insights into this emerging approach by conducting empirical, theoretical, and practical studies on its applications, challenges, success and failure stories. Also, agile internal audit case studies to generate hypotheses based on cross-case analyses need to be conducted. It also suggests some of the future directions for research in this emerging area.