Auditor’s Guide to Information Systems Auditing

Chapter 17. Information Management and Usage

This chapter covers the areas of information management and usage monitoring. Measurement criteria such as evaluating service level performance against service level agreements, quality of service, availability, response time, security and controls, processing integrity, and privacy are examined. The analysis, evaluation, and design information together with data and application architecture are evaluated as tools for the auditor

What Are Advanced Systems?

Since computer systems first came into being in the early 1950s they have been used to perform common business applications, thus automating many routine, labor-intensive business systems. Because these early systems handled and processed normal business transactions, they were called Transaction Processing Systems (TPS). These systems, in their latest forms, still play a critical role in the organization and management of today’s enterprises. It was soon realized that the data stored within the computer system could be better utilized in helping management in decision making in their respective functional areas, thus creating the Management Information Systems (MIS) of the 1960s and 1970s. Such systems were characterized by the production of reports at a managerial level to assist managers in performing their duties. During the 1980s, improvements in technology resulted in systems that were considerably more powerful and considerably less expensive. Personal computers spread throughout ...