Benchmarking Internal Audit Maturity. A high-level look at audit planning and processes worldwide

How mature is your internal audit (IA) department? This question is answered using responses from over 2,500 Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) in the 2015 CBOK database. The findings were further supplemented with interviews of a small sample of CAEs coming from different regions in the world who commented on IA department maturity. Assessment of the IA department maturity is important because it helps build strategies to bridge the gaps between expected and realized IA quality. As such we introduce maturity indicators to help principal stakeholders to decide whether and how they can rely on IA departments’ services, as well as CAEs to guide them in the development of a more mature IA department. Our report spans various industries in several global regions. We also report on influences of IA departments’ age and size, organization size, degree of conformance with the IIA Standards among others. The report is organized in seven chapters. Overall, the data suggests that IA departmental maturity has the following indicators: • is (almost) fully aligned with the strategic plan of the organization • demonstrates agility and flexibility to adapt the IA planning and priorities to important changes in the strategic objectives of an organization • relies on a holistic risk assessment to build sufficient knowledge and understanding of the organization' business at micro and macro levels • has an IA staff with a mix background of traditional auditing skills and industry knowledge complemented with general business competence, critical thinking skills and leadership skills • adopts structured, documented and diversified training programs for the IA staff; • documents and continuously monitors the audit procedures to adapt them to the changing environment; • makes the IA strategy explicit and translates the IA strategy into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which allow continuous monitoring of the achievement of the IA strategy; • uses leading technology (like data mining, data analytics and continuous/real-time audit) across the entire audit process to increase the IA's efficiency and effectiveness; • has a Quality Assurance and Improvement Program (QAIP) for the IA department which is aligned with the IA strategy and is supported by a culture around continuous quality assurance and improvement.