Scrolling through my news feed the other day, I came across a post from a colleague in our IT directorate. She was riffing on how something administrative in IT feels like it should be clerical and rigid—polished for audit. Her point was obvious: shouldn’t IT, of all disciplines, be the one to design systems that streamline for compliance rather than being buried under layers of documentation and multi-level approvals?
Her frustration struck a chord. Because, really, when do we actually see IT departments mandating that we use long spreadsheets, PDF forms, and signing parts of those, while, in a very twist of fate, ignoring the tools we have to automate, simplify, and make the entirety of those digital?
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The Audit Compliance Paradox
IT audit adherence is not optional. Models such as COBIT, ISO/IEC 27001, and ITIL are the perfect embodiment of the truth that governance, controls, and traceability are fundamental for operational resilience and risk management [1]. The problem isn’t compliance itself. The question is how compliance is enforced.
All too often, IT compliance is a checkbox manual exercise:
- A request form that requires five signatures before anyone even looks at it.
- A policy document that is so lengthy it intimidates the very people meant to follow it.
- A review process that feels like bureaucracy theater rather than actual risk control.
The irony? The same IT teams that implement these manual gates can also automate workflows, approval engines, and audit-ready dashboards, which could account for half the effort.
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When IT Feels Like IT Again
- Automated Workflows for Approvals: Stop producing forms as PDFs, and start using ticketing or workflow automation tools (like ServiceNow, Jira, and even homegrown BPM solutions). Each step is recorded, timestamped, and auditable—with no more manual chases required.
- Audit-Ready by Design: Integrate regulations into the system. For instance, role-based access control (RBAC) and automatic activity logging ensure that every access decision has its own audit trail—you don’t need a monthly “evidence collection” marathon.
- Policy-as-Code: Borrowing from DevOps, treat compliance rules as code. Tools like HashiCorp Sentinel or Open Policy Agent enable IT teams to codify rules (e.g., “all servers must have encryption enabled”), allowing for automated enforcement and continuous validation.
- Dashboards Over Documents: Why keep 50-page PowerPoints when you can have real-time dashboards? Audit officers needn’t want for wads of paper; they can be assured. A dashboard displaying compliance scores, exceptions, and remediation timelines is worth more than binders of signatures.
- Shift from “Gatekeeping” to “Enablement”: IT should not be regarded as the department of “No.” By recasting compliance procedures as enablers (fast track, automated, transparent), IT can provide both security and flexibility.
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Closing Thoughts (and a Gentle Jab 😉)
To my colleague who sparked this reflection: you’re absolutely right—IT should not feel like a clerical office. But here’s a thought—maybe instead of posting complaints on social media, we should channel that frustration into building solutions inside our teams. Otherwise, you risk sounding more like a lifestyle influencer than an IT professional. No hard feelings, yeah? 😄
Footnotes
【1】 ISACA, COBIT 2019 Framework: Governance and Management Objectives
【2】 ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection
【3】 ITIL v4, Managing Professional Practices for IT Service Management
