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Chapter 4

The audit strategy

The audit strategy sets the scope, timing and direction of the audit. It allows the
auditor to determine the following:

 the resources to deploy for specific audit areas (e.g. experience level, external
experts)

 the amount of resources to allocate (i.e. number of team members)

 when the resources are to be deployed

 how the resources are managed, directed and supervised, including the timings
of meetings, debriefs and reviews.

The audit plan

Once the audit strategy has been established, the next stage is to develop a specific,
detailed plan to address how the various matters identified in the overall strategy will
be applied.

The strategy sets the overall approach to the audit, whereas the plan fills in the
operational details of how the strategy is to be achieved.

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