Which practice supports speed and efficiency in control assessments?

• A. Redesign of controls should be performed annually.
• B. Avoiding automation entirely.
• C. Use of automation to conduct control assessments is maximized to increase speed, effectiveness, and efficiency of assessments.
• D. Assessment results should be limited to manual records.

Answer: (C)

Automation accelerates control assessments by handling data collection, testing, evidence gathering, and reporting automatically. It enables continuous monitoring, runs predefined tests, flags exceptions, and auto-generates results and audit trails. By maximizing automation, you cut manual work, reduce human error, and ensure consistent, repeatable assessments across controls and timeframes, which directly boosts speed and efficiency. Redesigning controls annually adds workload without inherently speeding up assessments; avoiding automation misses the efficiency gains automation provides; relying on manual records limits speed, traceability, and access to results. Therefore, maximizing automation is the approach that best supports speed and efficiency in control assessments.