Once again we are in the midst of a so-called “audit revolution”.  Last time it was internal controls and SOX, before that it was strategic business risk models and before that it was substantive analytical procedures.  This time it is “data analytics”!!  or Big Data or “visualization.”

The interesting question is how much is it hype and how much is it real?  Stewart Turley and his doctoral student (EMBEDDING BIG DATA ANALYTICS TOOLS IN THE AUDITS OFFINANCIAL STATEMENTS THROUGH IDENTITY REGULATION) have a paper that suggests that there is a lot more talk from partners with clients about using of data analytics than there are seniors actually doing data analtyics on engagements!