Internal Audit Ambition Model
A self-assessment tool from IIA Netherlands with which an internal audit function determines its maturity on five levels, from Initial to Optimizing. In 2025 the model was updated to the Global Internal Audit Standards.
Source: IIA Nederland, Internal Audit Ambition Model, Overview and Application Guide (2025); Internal Audit Monitor 2017
The Internal Audit Ambition Model of IIA Netherlands helps an internal audit function determine where it stands and where it wants to go. The model started in the Netherlands in 2016 as a self-assessment tool, was presented at ECIIA in 2018 and launched as an online tool at the IIA's global conference in 2019. In 2025 it was updated to the Global Internal Audit Standards, which have applied since January 2025.
The model has five themes: services and role of internal auditing, professional development, governing the internal audit function, strategic planning and performance measurement, and professional practices. These are worked out in thirteen sub-themes and forty topics. For each topic the function assesses itself on five levels: Initial, Infrastructure, Integrated, Managed and Optimizing.
According to the guidance of IIA Netherlands, level 3 gives an indication of conformance with the Standards, but no hard conclusions on conformance should be drawn from the scores. That conclusion follows from a more elaborate internal quality assessment or from the external quality assessment held at least once every five years. The model is also a different scale from the Principles Effectiveness Framework that IIA Quality Services uses in an external assessment.
The Internal Audit Monitor 2017 already referred to the model: a full internal audit function reaches at least the third level.
ONE Risk Advisory helps audit functions determine their maturity and draw up a realistic improvement agenda, and assesses conformance with the Standards in an External Quality Assessment.
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Related service Quality Improvement
Frequently asked questions
Does a score in the Ambition Model say anything about conformance with the Standards?
It gives an indication: according to IIA Netherlands, level 3 points to conformance with the Global Internal Audit Standards. Hard conclusions on conformance, however, belong to a more elaborate internal quality assessment or an External Quality Assessment.
What is the difference with the Principles Effectiveness Framework?
The Ambition Model is a self-assessment tool from IIA Netherlands with the levels Initial to Optimizing. The Principles Effectiveness Framework is the scale IIA Quality Services uses in an external assessment, with the levels Optimized, Sustainable, Effective, Partially Effective and Not Effective.