Continuous compliance, continuous iteration: How to get through IT audits successfully

For most students, exam days are one of the most stressful experiences of their educational careers. Exams are a semi-public declaration of your ability to learn, absorb and regurgitate the curriculum, and while the rewards for passing are rather mundane, the ramifications of failure are tremendous. My educational experience indicates that exam success is primarily due to preparation, with a fair bit of luck. If you were like me in school, exam preparation consisted mostly of cramming, with a heavy reliance on hope that the hours spent jamming material into my brain would cover at least 70% of the exam contents.After I left my education career behind me and started down a path in business technology, I was rather dismayed to find that the anxiety of testing and exams continued, but in the form of IT audits. Oddly enough, the recipe for audit success was remarkably similar: a heavy dose of preparation combined with luck.It seems that many businesses adhere to my cram-for-the-exam IT audit approach. Despite full knowledge and disclosure of the due dates and subject material, IT audit preparation in most companies I’ve encountered largely consists of ignoring it until the last minute, followed by a flurry of activity, stress, anxiety and panic.