Assessment planning

An assessment begins with a subject, an organization, a business unit and an owner. The period start and end make the work bounded. A scope statement explains the question the team intends to answer. Before tests start, the Assessment Owner should agree which controls are in scope and how many tests are planned. This gives the reviewer a defined body of work to examine later.

Consider a quarterly review of a lending business unit. The owner selects the legal organization and the unit, names the assessment, sets the quarter and records the planned tests. A control used by another business unit should be checked against the scope before it is included. The same subject can be assessed again in a later period without rewriting the earlier result.

• Scope. Keep the subject, organization, counterparty and period together on the assessment.
• Accountability. Assign a named owner who can explain the plan and follow open tests.
• Revision. Review decisions identify the assessment revision they examined.

Decide how teams name an assessment, how organization and business unit membership is checked, and who may change the scope after testing begins. Agree when a plan is ready to move from Draft to Planned. Test lines need an ordered connection to the assessment and a control; a count in the header alone is insufficient to show what will be tested.

Set the handoff to the Independent Reviewer before the first cycle. The reviewer needs to see the same period and scope that the testing team used, including any later revision. If scope changes, make the difference visible before a decision is recorded. Also agree who can see attachments marked Internal and who may receive Shared evidence.

Rehearse the lending review with one control that applies and one that belongs elsewhere. Confirm the planned test links to the intended control, has a stable line number and belongs to the chosen revision. Then change the scope and ask the reviewer which version is under review. A repeat of the same planning request should leave one accepted plan rather than duplicate test lines.

The owner should be able to explain why an assessment remains Planned, why it entered Testing, or why it is waiting in Review. The reviewer should be able to trace a finding back to a test within the same assessment. Close the rehearsal only after the source scope, current status and ownership match the working records.

• Assessment worklist — See the subject, period and owner for work still under preparation or review.
• My assessments — Follow work assigned to the signed-in owner.
• Assessment period schedule — Compare the start and end of planned assessment periods.

Follow the assessment to finding closure and prepare the operating scope.