#100DaysOfCode - Week02

Week 2 is in the books. This week I built a few more small Python applications and worked with some new packages. The apps included one for working with CSVs and another that use JSON APIs to gather data from a web resource and query that information.

One of the remarkable things about working with Python is that a novice can get started running scripts within a matter of minutes with basic modules, but those same modules (along with many others, of course) power some of the most notable technology companies on the planet, such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Dropbox. So the barrier to entry is low, but the potential for growth is extraordinary.

Python developers are about evenly split between web development and data science, so I also downloaded one of the most important data science toolboxes in existence today, the Anaconda distribution, and I created my first Jupyter notebook. The main focus of the scripting that I've been doing has been aimed towards automation--gathering, manipulating and presenting data from local files and web resources--but with more and more of Kaufman Rossin's clients looking to gain analytical insight into their operations through smart dashboards, data analysis tools are going to become more prominent.

Regardless, risk management and compliance processes are increasingly being automated--whether through scripting, robotic process automation (RPA), or application development. And although the benefits of automation are usually first noticed in cutting costs and/or increasing productivity, risk management and compliance processes also benefit significantly from automation's ability to measure and control quality. The days of large human labor forces performing quality review on a sample of a population may be numbered for certain types of information, and the implications for the auditors is obvious.

Are you convinced yet?

Rob Valdez, CPA, CISA, is a risk advisory services manager in Kaufman Rossin’s Boca Raton, Florida, office and provides technology consulting services, includingPhishNet by Kaufman Rossin, a security awareness training service. Rob can be reached at rvaldez@kaufmanrossin.com.