CIA-2 - Engagement Planning - Section A.7

Determine the level of financial, human, and technological resources and skills needed for the engagement, and evaluate the implications of resource limitations.

Determine the financial, human, and technological resources an engagement requires, matching auditor skills and tools to the subject matter under review. Evaluate the implications of resource limitations on the engagement's scope, depth, or timeline, and identify how such constraints should be communicated and managed.

Engagement resourcingResource limitations

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleEngagement Planningeasy

During engagement planning, an internal auditor determines the financial, human, and technological resources needed for the work. In internal audit terms, what does appropriately resourcing an engagement mean?

  • AAssigning whoever is available on the team first, then narrowing the engagement objectives to fit the people who were assigned to it.
  • BRequesting the largest possible budget so the engagement is never at risk of running short of money before the fieldwork is complete.
  • CUsing only the specific tools and staff that were used on the prior year audit of the same area, regardless of any change in scope.
  • DMatching the quantity and type of resources and the skills deployed to the assessed objectives, scope, and complexity of the engagement. Correct
Resourcing an engagement means matching the resources and skills deployed to the engagement's assessed objectives, scope, and complexity. Resources are a means to achieving the engagement objectives, so the assessed objectives, scope, and complexity determine what financial, human, and technological resources and competencies are needed, not the other way around.

Why A is wrong: This is tempting because staff availability is a real constraint, but it inverts the logic: objectives drive resourcing, not the reverse, so it is wrong.

Why B is wrong: Over-resourcing feels safe, but resourcing means matching resources to the assessed needs, not maximising the budget, so this is inefficient and incorrect.

Why C is wrong: Repeating last year feels efficient, but it ignores current objectives, scope, and complexity changes, so the resourcing may no longer be appropriate.

Why D is correct: Correct: resourcing aligns the money, people, technology, and competencies to what the engagement objectives and scope actually require to be achieved.

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