Background:

The task of implementing and completing projects can be daunting. Projects are faced with substantial, complicated and wide-ranging challenges. And the fact is, more often than not, projects fail to meet their goals. The failure rate and challenged rate of IT application software development and implementation projects is estimated at about 70 percent in the US alone.

Software implementation projects are known for:
•  Cost and time overruns - projects finish behind schedule and over budget,
•  Not meeting user and business requirements,
•  Having under-designed control frameworks, and much more.

The cost and time of a failed project can never be fully recovered. To avoid the costly down-stream effects of inadequate design and implementation, an adequate audit oversight during the software implementation lifecycle is a must:

• Pre-implementation review of the information technology solution allows management to detect weaknesses before information technology solution is implemented into production (it is significantly more cost effective to correct weaknesses during the design and development process)
• Post-implementation review of the information technology solution allows management to ensure that the original requirements are successfully implemented into production.

For an adequate pre- & post-implementation review and for implementation to be a success, a detailed and well thought-out software implementation audit plan is a necessity.


Table of Contents:

• Project Management - Controls to ensure that system meets expectations of the data owners and to track the progress a project is making towards meeting its work plans
• Change Management - Controls to ensure that implemented software supports accurate, complete, and valid processing of information and that errors identified during testing are appropriately resolved
• Access Security - Controls to ensure that adequate access security controls are designed and implemented to enable restriction of access to programs and data
• Business Process Controls/Segregation of Duties - Considerations related to the business process and SOD control frameworks
• Interfaces - Controls to ensure that interfaces are designed and built as intended and all pertinent data is extracted from the donor system(s) and accurately transferred into the recipient system(s)
• Data Conversion - Procedures for reconciliation, validation and error handling, and to ensure that data is extracted from the donor system and converted to the new system completely and accurately
• Security - Controls to ensure that adequate logical & physical security mechanisms are designed and operate effectively
• Infrastructure Security - Controls to ensure that computer hardware required to support implemented software is functional, maintainable, supportable, and adequately secured
• Privacy & Data Protection - Privacy framework that can further be tailored to suit business requirements based on the privacy provisions organizations need to comply with
• Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery - Procedures to ensure that essential business processes and information systems appropriately managed and can be recovered in the event of a disaster.

Please view an excerpt from the audit program to ensure it's right for you.
 
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