The Assessment Report
Whether or not there are any audit findings, an audit will conclude with an assessment report. This is the formal opinion of the auditor with respect to the topic of the management concern driving the audit objective. The audit objective will be stated, the audit methodology will be briefly described, and there will be a statement with respect to the auditor's professional opinion on whether the management concern is adequately addressed. Where there are findings, these will be listed. The report may also include recommendations for management activity that would reduce the impact of the findings. In cases where auditors are permanent employees of the organization, or on retainer to monitor recurring management concerns (such as financial statement generation), they may request formal management commitment to a specific plan designed to eliminate the finding. This remediation activity is often formally tracked to completion. The audit is often considered to remain "open" until the remediation activity is complete.
An IT manager whose work is within the scope of an audit has a responsibility to cooperate with the auditor's quest to validate a management concern. The audit should precede smoothly to the extent that the accountable IT manager has a complete understanding of the source of the management concern, is satisfied with translation of that concern into an audit objective, agrees that the scope maps directly to the objective, maintains evidence that control objectives are met, and fully understands the auditor's reasoning with respect to findings. Where there is disagreement with the auditor on any of these key aspects of the audit, the issue should be escalated through the IT management chain. This internal IT management communication may or may not have any effect on the audit process, but it will serve to demonstrate that the auditee fully understands the audit process, and is willing to open discuss and informed debate on audit issues.