A core issue with Compliance Audits is when there is a disconnect between daily work and the data needed for audits. When compliance isn’t integrated into the regular workflow, it becomes a separate, costly, and time-consuming process.
Common Problems that Impact Compliance Audits
The High Cost of After-the-Fact Data Collection
When compliance audits aren’t supported by data collected during normal operations, the cost can skyrocket. Teams have to stop their regular work to manually gather evidence, interview employees, and piece together a historical record of activities. This process is not only inefficient but also highly prone to errors and omissions. The time spent on these “fire drills” is time not spent on innovation or core business functions, leading to significant opportunity costs.
The Problem with “Doing Your Work You Are Following the Process”
The phrase “doing your work you are following the process” suggests that compliance is an inherent part of the job. However, if there’s no system to automatically capture evidence of this, the claim is almost impossible to verify during an audit. This puts immense pressure on individuals to remember and document every single action, which is an unrealistic expectation. Without automated, integrated data collection, this approach makes compliance a burden rather than a seamless part of the workflow.
Lack of Real-Time Visibility
A system that relies on manual, or retrospective, data collection for audits lacks real-time visibility into an organization’s compliance posture. You don’t know you’re non-compliant until the audit, at which point it’s too late to fix issues proactively. This can lead to serious consequences, including fines, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust.
Stifled Productivity and Innovation
When compliance is a separate, intrusive process, it can stifle productivity and innovation. Employees view compliance as an obstacle to getting their work done, leading to shortcuts or resistance. This creates a culture where security and compliance are seen as roadblocks rather than enablers of business success.
The Solution: Integrate Compliance into Day-to-Day Operations
The solution is to embed compliance data collection directly into the daily work of IT teams and employees. Here’s how:
Automate Evidence Collection
Use tools that automatically log and track actions. For example, automation that logs code changes, process steps, actions, approvals, and deployments, providing a clear audit trail. Network monitoring tools can automatically track access attempts and changes to configurations. This “always-on” approach to data collection makes audits significantly easier and cheaper.
Shift to a “Compliance-as-Code” Mindset
This approach treats compliance rules as code that can be tested and enforced continuously. As the rules changes, the testing changes to match. By defining security policies in a machine-readable format, you can automatically check for compliance with every new change or deployment. This proactive approach ensures that the “doing your work you are following the process” phrase is not just a claim but a verifiable reality.
Empower Employees with the Right Tools
Provide employees with intuitive tools that make it easy to follow compliant processes without extra effort. For example, a system that automatically prompts for a ticket number before a code commit ensures that all changes are tied to a formal request. This makes compliance a natural part of the workflow, not a separate task.
By shifting from retrospective, manual audits to an automated, integrated system, organizations can dramatically reduce the cost and friction of compliance. The data needed for an audit becomes a byproduct of daily work, not a separate project, turning compliance from a burden into a business enabler.
Sources
- NIST SP 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations.
- ISO/IEC 27001, Information security management.
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford.
- State of DevOps Report by DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment).