Process Thinking for Auditors (revised for 2012)

This course brings analytical thought to bear on the component parts of a process to show how a process generates value for the organisation and for its customers and clients, to identify where particularly to look for risk within a process, and to demonstrate the importance of workflow.

Suitability and duration

Suitability: Intermediate

Duration: 2 days

Who should attend

Those familiar with auditing that want to explore techniques to improve the value and business-relevance of their work. To ensure practical grounding delegates will spend most of their time practicing and developing their process skills by working through examples and challenges.

Benefits

Skills

After completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Appreciate how process thinking incorporated within the audit process generates more businesslike audit results;
• Understand the attributes of process chains and see how these generate value for organisations, for customers and clients and how processes can generate or suppress risk;
• Deploy a range of new techniques to improve the evaluation of processes and controls;
• Perform low-impact process modelling to contribute quantitative and qualitative value to audit observations and conclusions.

Support Materials

This course is accompanied by a manual that contains full briefing notes and examples. A demonstration version of a process modelling tool will also be made available to delegates.

Programme

The audit paradigm

• Adding audit value through process thinking
• Risk within processes
• Process techniques and auditing – appropriate roles and strategies

Process chain basics

• LEAN – a successful approach to efficiency and value
• Kaizen – continuous improvement
• Concepts of process chain and value
• Process chain analysis
• Internal views of a process
• Client views of a process
• Risk and process activities – the hotspots
• Process optimisation
• Process analysis and its usefulness to audit documentation

Process analysis basics

• LEAN, BPR and Kaizen
• Core processes – the heart of the matter
• Process expansion – top down analysis
• Activity resourcing – quantification of a process
• Path of least resource – lowest cost way of performing the process
• Software tools and assistance – smart approaches

Process flow analysis

• Risk as a factor in the analytical approach
• Following flow through a process
• Asking the right questions
• Service and risk attributes – what are they and where are they?
• Seeking hidden paths
• Identifying points at risk and applying controls
• Identifying external links
• Job roles, segregation and processes
• Improving the control chain – reducing the cost of control
• Reporting process improvements as part of an audit

Audit Process Thinking

• Adaptation for audit purposes
• Low impact adoption into audit processes

Course designed, developed and presented by MindGrove.