System Change Controls

A. Weakness Program Change requests were initiated by either the operation staff or the system staff depending on the nature of the change. All changes require were discussed in Mr. Slows office prior to his oral approval. B. Recommendation All system or program changes should be properly authorized to ensure their economic justifications and feasibility. This requires a formal environment in which users submit requests to system professionals. The written request should include a detailed description of his or her needs. It should describe the users view of the problem, not that of the system professionals. A. Mr. Slow encourage systems personnel to visit from time to time to discuss the progress of the change. B. Users need to be actively involved in the system development process. Regardless of the technology involved, the user should create a detailed written description of the development or progress of the system change. A. Only Mr. Slow evaluates the work performed by the system personnel. B. An internal audit group, astute in computer technology and processing a solid grasp of the business problems to be solved, is invaluable to the organization during system change. Internal auditors should therefore become involved formally at the inception of the system change to oversee the definition of user needs requirements and appropriate controls. Furthermore, this involvement should continue throughout all phases of development and maintenance A. No proper or detailed analysis of the change request by system professionals and internal audit group. B. A design specification should include system analysis, feasibility analysis and a detailed system design. The adequacy of these activities is measured by the quality of the documentation that emerges from each phases.

A. Program Testing is performed on the copies of the file. Only the programmers are present during the testing phase. B. All program modules must be thoroughly tested before they are implemented. The results of the tests are then compared against predetermined results to identify programming and logic errors. Actual testing would be extensive and involve many transactions that test all aspects of the process change. Prior to the implementation, individual modules of the system need to be formally and rigorously tested as a whole. The test team should comprise of user personnel, systems professionals, and internal auditors. A. A short narrative description of the change is prepared. Only Mr. Slow reviewed the results of the test. B. Test data prepared should be detailed and complete. This will give a frame of reference for designing and evaluating future audit test. The details of the test performed and their results need to be formally documented and analyzed. Once the team is satisfied, the system can now be transferred to the users.