evolution

Table of Contents
The Perils of Mount Must Read™
Confessions of a Cliff Note Junky
Preface
Are you sure I’m in recovery? I will conquer Mount Must Read™ Waste no time Compliance Farm™(sidebar) What should an IS Auditor eat? Touchdown! Blame someone Legal G-A-P What I dont know Please don’t ... back to high school Congress paid to think Say "Goodbye" to statute virginity Give up the white paper crutch Can someone help me down My Mother told me to say I’m sorry Basic principals of a well rounded diet How do you keep that stunning figure? Trade secrets You can’t make me download! GAO, is that you? Regarding recovery Even the score The diet starts today Birth records, death certificates If it makes sense, it exists A trip to the Standards Mall Lowest Common Denominator How low can you go? The more you know, the less you Fundamental Five A simpler selection criteria How did I miss the Common Criteria? These are not Cliff Notes Seems like a Schema to me Where are you taking me? Honest Doc, I looked Get to higher ground Open the computer bay, HAL Naked without our tools Second greatest hook of all time COTS alone can’t save us Process alone can’t save us Factors affecting world trade: Birth announcement Enough about them, let’s talk about Did you happen to notice ? A problem not owned You want me to kill them now? “Dreams are like stars... I don’t want a baby brother Competition is the spice of life Get the data and proportionality Does the punishment fit the crime? Do you mind one last question? Why didn’t I write any of that? Appendix Stuff Play Evolution
Preface: [TOC] ..Why should anyone read a story about a possessed reading pile and a recovering workaholic? With liberal dose of fantasy and humor, the “The Perils of Mount Must Read™” chronicles a quest to conquer all the “required reading” necessary to remaining competent in information audit and technology. Admittedly, the intended audience has some background in compliance and IT. Even if the reader is not an IT auditor, the challenge to stay ahead of new tools and research in an industry with no respect for “too much information” is a familiar predicament. Add to that, an ego driven compulsion to make sense of every digitally available IT resource, and you have the essence of a modern day tragic hero, an information overload villain, and a quest for information peace and enlightenment. Becoming caught up in the race to remain competent in one’s professional is probably not unique to audit or technology. Blending fiction and truth, the tale aims for insight, suggesting solutions to the problem of what to read and who to regard as “expert” in our field. Laugh with me or at me, but please relax and consider quality over quantity as alternative to drinking from the digital fire hose. Events transpire between October and December, and conclude with the New Year, 2006. Part fantasy and part truth, the characters admit their flaws and evolve a strategy for survival against The Perils of Mount Must Read™. Many thanks to the persons who provided a wealth of great resources. Credits are scattered throughout the story and detailed in the endnotes. Hope you enjoy the read. Kind Regards, Robin Basham

Table of Contents

The Perils of Mount Must Read™

Preface