How Market Pricing Reflects Brand, Not Measurable Quality

Paramify is making FedRAMP (Rev 5 or 20x), GovRAMP & CMMC fun. Get your $750 Gap Assessment at paramify.com/grc---Troy Fine has conducted hundreds of SOC 2 audits over 15 years. In this conversation, he reveals uncomfortable truths about the audit market that most practitioners won't discuss openly.His most explosive admission: "Nobody can measure audit quality." Not TPRM teams. Not buyers. Not even auditors themselves. You're not paying for quality - you're paying for brand recognition.We cover:**The Evidence Trust Problem**Why auditors trust screenshots but not platform automation, the middleware accountability gap that makes audit firms uncomfortable, and what professional liability concerns reveal about legal defensibility versus technical capability.**Quality vs Brand Reality**Troy's admission that even premium audit firms don't provide measurably better quality, why personal brand premium pricing works at small scale but doesn't solve systematic problems, and how the audit market operates on reputation signalling rather than measurable outcomes.**Platform Evidence & Professional Liability**The risk-based framework Troy actually uses: accepting platform evidence for low-risk controls whilst validating source systems for infrastructure, what would make platforms auditor-trustworthy (cryptographic evidence chains, auditor-controlled queries, platform certification), and why the courtroom scenario keeps auditors sceptical of automation.**SOC 2 Market Commoditisation**The feedback loop problem driving quality degradation, why "no report is better than bad report" reveals systematic market failure, the two-tier market emerging (premium craftsmanship versus commoditised checkbox exercises), and how price compression without quality metrics creates race-to-bottom dynamics.**The SOC 2 Lite Proposal**Troy's vision for formal tiered assurance with 20 prescriptive controls for smaller companies, why this would fail in practice (TPRM teams defaulting to "Full," gaming qualification criteria, arbitrary thresholds), and what transparency about validation depth would actually provide instead.**AI in Audit Practice**Where Troy embraces AI (evidence evaluation, pattern detection, documentation efficiency) versus where human judgement remains essential (risk assessment, control design evaluation, professional scepticism), and why accountability architecture matters more than tool ownership.**What Would Actually Fix This**Moving from point-in-time audits to continuous assurance, building cryptographic evidence chains for provenance verification, auditing platform methodology once instead of each deployment, and why engineering discipline with measurable quality metrics could replace subjective professional judgement.

Connect with Troy:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troyjfine/Fine Assurance: fineassurance.com**About The GRC Engineer:**The GRC Engineer explores how engineering principles are transforming governance, risk, and compliance. Hosted by Ayoub Fandi, each episode features practitioners, leaders, and innovators building the future of GRC through automation, code, and systems thinking.🌐 Visit: grcengineer.com💼 Connect: linkedin.com/in/ayoubfandi📧 Newsletter: grcengineer.com/subscribeSubscribe for deep-dives into GRC automation, compliance as code, risk engineering, and the intersection of security, compliance, and software development.#GRCEngineering #SOC2 #Audit #Compliance #TroyFine #CyberSecurity #RiskManagement #Automation #SecurityCompliance #AuditQuality