Stream of Consciousness
Examining my dictionary What is a manager? My dictionary states that a manager is: "a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff" But there is an implicit assumption here, which is the following: that an organization or a group of staff need managing.
management
Another link to an absolutely worthwhile article. Michael Lopp offers an excellent suggestion in the following article on context reporting. He suggests: "A context report documents the reason why (and to a lesser extent how) you’re completing these actions and I suspect this information is far more useful
management
I'm very deep into some work and have limited time to blog, but that's an excellent opportunity to refer to work done by some great writers and thinkers, in my specific subject area. Here is an excellent article by Simon Perks, a former colleague of mine,
risk management
It has been quite a busy week, so I've not been able to write for the blog. I have, however, been reading a lot. While it was not primarily on my agenda, this article on risk management caught my eye. It makes a concise and very clear distinction
audit academy
There is a lot of information available on academic note taking Good note taking is a craft all by itself. Look at any website of any itself respecting college or university and you will find at least one class on advanced note taking skills. Do a search on the web
Basecamp
I've been surprised by the level of interest about my recent post on using Basecamp as the base application for internal audit working papers. While by no means a representative sample, I feel the interest indicates that current working paper solutions fail to address a number of concerns
documentation
Looking for better methods I was recently reading a paper by Kieran Healy of Duke University on workflow applications. I am always on the lookout for workflows that simplify or optimize our way of generating reports and this one came highly recommended by Dr. Drang, so I had to go
bias
Introduction I really enjoy reading an audit report or audit working papers because quite often we see the cognitive biases of the auditor at work. Let's be clear, I am as much a potential victim of cognitive biases as any other auditor. However, being aware of their existence
Getting Things Done
The designated meeting day In order to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of their teams working from multiple locations, organizations are proposing or even imposing that certain days are to be designated as "meeting days". On these days, remote workers are expected to be present at the
development aid
Okay, you need to go and read this. It's quite long but it's very informative. As an internal auditor, I especially liked the following part on a fraud discovered and reported on in the press: "I appreciate the concern, and it’s a good thing
internal audit
Most audit reports are too long Most of the internal audit reports I have read in my life have one thing in common. They are just too long. Sometimes I get the feeling that internal auditors need to motivate their existence by the sheer amount of paper we produce. Because
internal audit
Steps to understanding a process Gaining a clear understanding of the functioning of a process or how it aligns with tactical or strategic objectives of an organization is not necessarily the easiest challenge for an auditor. Often, the counterparts interviewed are not fully aware of either why they do what