What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A&A-03 Risk Based Planning Assessment?

Risk-based audit plan linking each audit to entries in the risk register; Risk assessment used to set audit scope and frequency; Records of ad hoc assessments commissioned after a major change or emerging threat; Senior management approval of the audit plan and its revisions; Audit universe listing systems and processes with assigned risk ratings.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A&A-03?

Audit plan follows a fixed rotation with no link to current risk ratings

CSA CCM v4.1 · A&A - Audit & Assurance

`A&A-03` Risk Based Planning Assessment

Independent audit and assurance work is planned and carried out from risk-based plans and policies, and extra assessments are triggered when significant changes happen or new risks emerge.

Source: CSA CCM v4.1, A&A-03. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open CSA CCM v4.1 in the compliance library.

Version 4.1 adds 11 controls (among them API security, log sanitisation and a service bill of materials) and renumbers several domains. CSA accepts v4.0.x during its transition; if your STAR assessment is still on v4.0.1, check the numbering against it.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Records of ad hoc assessments commissioned after a major change or emerging threat · Policy repository / GRC workspace

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Risk-based audit plan linking each audit to entries in the risk register · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Risk assessment used to set audit scope and frequency · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Senior management approval of the audit plan and its revisions · Policy repository / GRC workspace

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Audit universe listing systems and processes with assigned risk ratings · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Policy repository / GRC workspace on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Audit plan follows a fixed rotation with no link to current risk ratings
No unplanned assessment after a significant platform migration or incident
Emerging risks logged but never fed into the audit plan

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

A&A-02 Independent Assessments · A&A-04 Requirements Compliance