IIA Guidance - Research and Development News

The 4th IT Audit Research Symposium - May 13, 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa 
In conjunction with the 2009 IIA International Conference in Johannesburg, the IIA Research Foundation and Advanced Technology Committee conducted the 4th Audit Research Symposium on May 13, 2009.  The topics presented this year were:

• Employee Monitoring, Fraud Detection and Cross-Boarder Data Transfer: Issues and Challengers
• Enterprise Architecture Enabling Internal Audit
• The Effect and Consequence of GRC Tools and Methods on IT Audit

After the presentation, researchers and practitioners had a lively discussion and debate on the on the problems facing the profession, value of the research topics, potential research approaches and deliverables.  

The IIA's XBRL Survey Results Are In!
The IIA conducted a survey in September 2008 to assist us in understanding the current status of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) adoption worldwide, the internal auditor's role in this process, and your needs and expectations.

Although most respondents reported not being required currently to comply with XBRL, nearly 90% expressed interest in learning more about it. As interactive data advances into the global business world, regulators in many countries have issued various mandates that require organizations to file financial statements in XBRL. The adoption of XBRL would mean new opportunities and challenges for the internal audit profession. As the guidance setting body for the profession, The IIA is working on an XBRL report to provide internal auditors with the necessary knowledge and guidance on this topic.

Click here to view the Executive Summary of the XBRL survey results. (PDF, 130K)

New IIARF Study Examines How IT Controls Impact Operational Performance
The IIA Research Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of Leveraging IT Controls to Improve IT Operating Performance by Dan Phelps and Kurt Milne. This study was the first completed as a result of an IT audit research symposium. It was designed to give IT audit and operations professionals empirical data about which IT controls have the biggest impact on operational performance, and about the effect of higher levels of IT control process maturity.

Read more to learn how information technology (IT) controls impact operational performance.

The 3rd IT Audit Research Symposium -- July 6, 2008, San Francisco, USA
The IIA Research Foundation and Advanced Technology Committee (ATC) conducted the 3rd IT audit research symposium on July 6 at San Francisco in conjunction with IIA's International Conference. The topics discussed this year were:

• XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) , The Impact on Assurance, New Challenges for the Audit Profession
• Fraud Interviewing Techniques for Internal Auditors
• Applying usability testing to evaluate information technology control of in-house developed software application

In addition, the symposium also invited Kurt Milne from ITPI to present the research findings of his IT controls project, and Glen Gray to update the community on the status of his research project, "How internal auditors can improve the success rate of system development projects".

Read more about the 2008 symposium.

IT Audit Research Symposium 2007 (PDF, 12KB)
IT Audit Research Symposium 2006 (PDF, 230 KB)