How Can We Reduce Senior Engineers’ Involvement During Audits?

This is a common issue, but the root cause isn’t necessarily the audits themselves. It often stems from having too much crucial information locked away in memories instead of being documented. Start capturing the reasons behind decisions and include real examples when changes are made. That way, engineers can spend less time on audits because there's proper documentation in place.

Ideally, your auditors shouldn't need to speak directly with senior engineers. Everything they ask for should be documented and accessible to everyone on the team. In my experience in DevOps, I've never had an auditor request to speak with a senior; they usually deal with more junior staff.

Consider recording the explanations provided during audits and compiling them for future reference. You could say something like, ‘We've gone through this before, please check this recording, and let us know if you have more questions.’ This could streamline the process.

In our company, we have a whole team focused on audits. It’s not a perfect setup, as many people seem to want to avoid that team, but it does keep senior engineers out of the loop.

Why not hire a dedicated documentation specialist instead of relying on senior engineers for audits? It would really help reduce their stress and give auditors something reliable to work with instead of playing a guessing game with your top talent.