Auditor’s Guide to Information Systems Auditing

Chapter 16. Information Systems Planning

This chapter covers the Information Systems (IS) planning and managing components and includes developing an understanding of stakeholders and their requirements together with IS planning methods such as system investigation, process integration/re-engineering opportunities, risk evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, object-oriented systems analysis, and design. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to facilitate enterprise applications integration is reviewed.

For most organizations, information resources are managed through the information technology (IT) department with three primary areas of responsibility, namely, operations, systems development, and technical support. These are not, however, the only stakeholders in the IT process.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are all of those individuals and organizations that have a direct or indirect connection to the Information Processing (IP) function of the organization. These include:

• Management. At all levels within the organization from general management to operational supervisors, management relies on the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of information processed through the computer systems.

• Customers. Customers wishing to do business with the organization require assurance that products and services provided will be of exceptional quality, timescales will be as promised, and that building and account information will be accurately rendered. At the same time they require ...