A technical audit is a comprehensive analysis of a company’s technological infrastructure. The goal is identify strengths and weaknesses in the tech stack and make sure it’s in line with your goals for business. It’s an important step to make prior to starting a new project and provides valuable insight into how the technology will perform.
Tech audits differ from IT reviews and security assessments they focus more on assessing systems in terms of compliance and security. Tech audits evaluate all the tools your company employs to do work, and then analyze their effectiveness, cost, as well as integrations with other technologies.
The details of a tech review will depend on the person who is conducting it. It can be requested by a CFO who is trying to cut costs for software, or it may be motivated by a leadership team looking to become more agile and productive.
One of the most common outcomes of a technology stack audit is that a variety of tools are used for similar functions. For instance, engineers might employ Jira, while marketing teams utilize Asana and Wrike. The result is that the data isn’t flowing freely across departments and forming a single source of truth.
These applications are often employed by specific departments or teams. Some of these apps can be useful and add value but they can also be risky, particularly when integrations and security are not vetted. A tech audit can give the top management a glimpse of the tools they use and how they are used, helping to determine if they should be incorporated in the overall technology stack.
