University of Twente Student Theses
Key Success Factors and Audit Maturity Level Evaluation in Organizations from Continuous Auditing Perspective
Zata Lini, Tifani (2023) Key Success Factors and Audit Maturity Level Evaluation in Organizations from Continuous Auditing Perspective.
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| Abstract: | Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore and examine the key success factors and audit maturity level in the context of continuous auditing for organizations. It aims to identify the critical factors that contribute to the successful implementation of continuous auditing practices and investigate the significance of evaluating the maturity level of the auditing system to ensure optimal performance and outcomes. Design/Methodology: The research methodology selected for this study is based on the design science methodology proposed by Wieringa (2014). This methodology consists of four phases, namely problem investigation, treatment design, treatment validation, and treatment implementation. For data acquisition, this study chose survey method through semi-structured interviews with both external and internal auditors to capture the essence, challenges, and the factors that lead to a successful continuous auditing implementation. Findings: The findings of this thesis highlight the challenges faced in implementing continuous auditing, both from a theoretical and practical perspective. While several challenges mentioned in the theoretical literature align with the practical findings, additional challenges emerged during the practical investigation, including data accessibility, lack of guidelines for implementation, and defining the appropriate controls to minimize exceptions. Based on these challenges, a total of nine key success factors were identified and categorized into three main categories: business process requirements, organizational condition requirements, and technological requirements. These key success factors provide organizations with a structured framework for successful continuous auditing implementation. In addition, the majority of the experts emphasized on the importance of audit maturity level evaluation prior to the continuous auditing implementation, hence this study presented an audit maturity level evaluation based on CMMI framework to allow organization assessing their maturity level to the advised maturity level. Furthermore, a comprehensive guideline is proposed as the final artifact based on the derivation of these key success factors, serving as a practical resource for organizations aiming to effectively implement continuous auditing practices with the audit maturity level evaluation serves as the navigation at which stage that an organization should start when implementing continuous auditing in their environment. Validation: Four participants, including two internal and two external stakeholders, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview approach. The findings indicated a high level of clarity and understanding of the key success factors and the proposed guideline. The participants acknowledged the alignment of the key success factors with the goals of continuous auditing and suggested the inclusion of "tone at the top" as an additional factor. While the proposed guideline was considered adequate, suggestions were made to enhance its comprehensiveness, such as incorporating a scorecard and introducing a review phase. Keywords: Continuous Auditing (CA), Internal Audit, Key Success Factors, Guideline, Audit Maturity Level |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | KPMG Netherlands, Amstelveen, Netherlands |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Programme: | Business Information Technology MSc (60025) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/96657 |
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