From Barry Boehm's Agile2006 keynote presentation [via Brad]:
What an Auditor Looks for ...
Processes and tools over individuals and interactions
Comprehensive documentation over working software
Contract negotiation over customer collaboration
Following a plan over responding to change
An Auditor Manifesto?
-oOo-
Familiar? Yes. Very.
Does it have to be this way? No.
-oOo-
Many years ago I was asked to manage the rescue of a medium to large IT project which was had gone off the rails. It was a political hot potato too, with a huge amount of credibility - mine, my bosses, and the entire IT teams - at stake.
The project was way too big for my level of experience. I was 26 at the time and had no formal project management experience. But my boss had more confidence in me than I did in myself ... oh, and I was the only person with the necessary technical skills available at the time.
The project was a huge success. Not only did the project came in on time, but nearly all of the stakeholders were thrilled with the result. Shortly after it was implemented the project's sponsor took over as head of IT which helped my career immensely.
My secret? I was lucky to be sitting right next door to the audit department and I was too naive to realize that they were the enemy. So I started chatting with the auditors. Nice people. They gave me lots of advice. They were involved right from the start of the rescue effort and heavily influenced my approach. We chatted several times a day - sometimes even several times a week. I was completely honest and open with them. They went out of their way to help me succeed. It made their jobs easier.
What's more, despite having the thinnest (but, I immodestly add, the most useful) documentation of any IT system in the organisation, the auditors assessed it with the highest ISO9001 rating of any system in the company. They didn't do this because we were buddies, rather it was because they had helped me to figure out exactly what kind of documentation they valued. It might surprise people that what the type of documentation they wanted was exactly the type of documentation I needed.
-oOo-
Obviously I'm proud of the work I did. But my point is that Auditors are not your enemy unless you make them your enemy. So, make them your friend instead. The auditors prefer it too: they don't wanna be the heavy-handed bad-guy who comes in to ruin your life mid-way through, or after, your project.
I've made it a personal rule to deliberately seek out auditors at the start of my projects and work with them and it has always paid off.
