What value do our key stakeholders place on assurance?  Are they always fully engaged and supportive of our activities?  Assurance is preventive in nature - it is often difficult for Assurance Practitioners to quantify or define the benefits of an effective (and efficient) assurance activity when challenged. It’s even more difficult to explain the potential impact(s) for an organisation if an assurance programme was not in place, or if the resources allocated to the programme were reduced as part of a restructuring.  How can we, as Assurance Practitioners, demonstrate the value of assurance, and make sure we deliver value-adding assurance activities?

The November 2019 conference hosted by the APM Assurance SIG will examine a number of these areas – for example, can we demonstrate the Return on Investment (RoI) for assurance?  Are Assurance providers able to make a strong business case for assurance, based on the level of protection delivered versus the investment needed?  More importantly, should we need to?  Is the Value of Assurance something that can be quantified?  Should we be “selling” the value of our services in a different way?

A key output from the conference will be the framing of some research into the topic to be commissioned by the APM.