Controls Exercise / Discussion Example #1 A game that is useful in understanding controls and a control diagram.
Exercise Everyone in the room grab a marshmallow Separate into 2 groups One person in each team a gets a message – DON’T SHARE THE MESSAGE WITH YOUR TEAMMATES! The person with the message must pop a marshmallow in their mouth and whisper the message into the ear of the person next to them Can only whisper it once – No repeating! Must be quiet enough that no one else can hear it Continue step 4 until the message reaches the last person on the team The team that gets the message right at the end wins If there is a tie, the team that finished first wins 11/18/2018
Messages Team # 1 WE DELIVER MEASURABLE VALUE, QUICKLY Our phased approach and broad experience produce practical solutions that enable our clients to realize rapid results. Team # 2 WE TRANSFER KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS TO OUR CLIENTS ON EACH ENGAGEMENT Our seasoned consultants work alongside our clients to transfer their deep industry, business process and application experience. 11/18/2018
What were some causes for failure? Marshmallows made it hard for the sender to pronounce words Other noise in the room made it difficult for the receiver to hear the message The message you heard was complex The guy next to you accidentally spit in your ear? 11/18/2018
Reality Check Funny kids game... Of course, it never happens in the real adult world... does it? The president decides that their strategic direction needs to be changed. He talks to the COO. The COO talks to the VPs. They talk to their direct reports. They talk to the mid-level managers. They talk to the individual managers. They talk to the employees. 11/18/2018
How does this apply to company controls? Within the company system: There is a message (data) that needs to be conveyed A sender (USA database) needs to bundle the message and communicate it to the next stage A receiver (QEIS) needs to interpret the message and format it for display on the website A receiver (End User) needs to correctly understand the website in order to make informed business decisions Noise often contributes to a garbled message (data) During our exercise, what if we installed a “listening” device in between each person that alerted us when the message had been changed? Could we expect better end results? Ah, yes…. Controls. 11/18/2018
Company Controls Overview Objective: Concisely and efficiently analyze business data to increase confidence in company metrics Point to Point Controls P2P controls objectives Accuracy - The data correctly represents source data and is valid Allocation - The data was assigned to the correct account, period, etc * Completeness - All data is present Existence - The data represents a valid account, product, transaction, etc Occurrence - The data represents an event that actually happened * Timeliness - The data is received in an acceptable period of time Valuation - The data represents the correct value of transactions, assets, etc Business Controls Used to evaluate data trends from a business standpoint Operational changes – Are changes to processes or definitions affecting the trend? Market changes – Are market changes affecting the trend? Organizational changes – Have recent organizational changes affected the trend? Simple Data Flow Diagram 11/18/2018
Control Examples Business Control Example P2P Control Example Control Objective: Timeliness Service Level Agreement: Must be received by 7AM each day Date Sent Time Sent Date Received Time Received Pass/Fail 1/2/2005 3:00:00 5:58:22 Pass 1/3/2005 2:55:07 6:08:44 1/4/2005 2:58:55 5:51:27 1/5/2005 3:01:04 6:30:51 1/6/2005 2:58:34 7:53:21 Fail Business Control Example Does the unit trend (over time) stay within statistical control? 11/18/2018
Controls System Diagram 11/18/2018
Control Flow / Testing Diagrams Example #2 You may need to zoom in to read these examples.
Business Processes: Wireless
Business Processes (IR): AL, DSL, Data & IP
Business Processes (IR): Long Distance
Business Processes (OOR): Wholesale
Business Processes (OOR): BMG