New 2009 CISA Preparation Programme

Workshop Contents

Content Area  1 - IS Audit Process - 10%

• Develop and implement a risk-based IS audit strategy for the organization in compliance with IS audit standards, guidelines and best practices.
• Plan specific audits to ensure that IT and business systems are protected and controlled.
• Conduct audits in accordance with IS audit standards, guidelines and best practices to meet planned audit objectives.
• Communicate emerging issues, potential risks, and audit results to key stakeholders. 1.5 Advise on the implementation of risk management and control practices within the organization while maintaining independence.

Content Area  2 - IT Governance - 15%

• Evaluate the effectiveness of IT governance structure to ensure adequate board control over the decisions, directions, and performance of IT so that it supports the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate IT organizational structure and human resources (personnel) management to ensure that they support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate the IT strategy and the process for its development, approval, implementation, and maintenance to ensure that it supports the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate the organization’s IT policies, standards, and procedures; and the processes for their development, approval, implementation, and maintenance to ensure that they support the IT strategy and comply with regulatory and legal requirements.
• Evaluate management practices to ensure compliance with the organization’s IT strategy, policies, standards, and procedures.
• Evaluate IT resource investment, use, and allocation practices to ensure alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate IT contracting strategies and policies, and contract management practices to ensure that they support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate risk management practices to ensure that the organization’s IT related risks are properly managed.
• Evaluate monitoring and assurance practices to ensure that the board and executive management receive sufficient and timely information about IT performance.

Content Area  3 - Systems and Infrastructure Lifecycle Management - 16%

• Evaluate the business case for the proposed system development/acquisition to ensure that it meets the organization’s business goals.
• Evaluate the project management framework and project governance practices to ensure that business objectives are achieved in a cost-effective manner while managing risks to the organization.
• Perform reviews to ensure that a project is progressing in accordance with project plans, is adequately supported by documentation and status reporting is accurate.
• Evaluate proposed control mechanisms for systems and/or infrastructure during specification, development/acquisition, and testing to ensure that they will provide safeguards and comply with the organization’s policies and other requirements.
• Evaluate the processes by which systems and/or infrastructure are developed/acquired and tested to ensure that the deliverables meet the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate the readiness of the system and/or infrastructure for implementation and migration into production.
• Perform post-implementation review of systems and/or infrastructure to ensure that they meet the organization’s objectives and are subject to effective internal control.
• Perform periodic reviews of systems and/or infrastructure to ensure that they continue to meet the organization’s objectives and are subject to effective internal control.
• Evaluate the process by which systems and/or infrastructure are maintained to ensure the continued support of the organization’s objectives and are subject to effective internal control.
• Evaluate the process by which systems and/or infrastructure are disposed of to ensure that they comply with the organization’s policies and procedures.

Content Area 4 - IT Service Delivery and Support - 14%

• Evaluate service level management practices to ensure that the level of service from internal and external service providers is defined and managed.
• Evaluate operations management to ensure that IT support functions effectively meet business needs.
• Evaluate data administration practices to ensure the integrity and optimization of databases.
• Evaluate the use of capacity and performance monitoring tools and techniques to ensure that IT services meet the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate change, configuration, and release management practices to ensure that changes made to the organization’s production environment are adequately controlled and documented.
• Evaluate problem and incident management practices to ensure that incidents, problems, or errors are recorded, analyzed, and resolved in a timely manner.
• Evaluate the functionality of the IT infrastructure (e.g., network components, hardware, system software) to ensure that it supports the organization’s objectives.

Content Area  5 - Protection of Information Assets - 31%

• Evaluate the design, implementation, and monitoring of logical access controls to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, availability and authorized use of information assets. 5.2 Evaluate network infrastructure security to ensure confidentiality, integrity, availability and authorized use of the network and the information transmitted.
• Evaluate the design, implementation, and monitoring of environmental controls to prevent or minimize loss.
• Evaluate the design, implementation, and monitoring of physical access controls to ensure that information assets are adequately safeguarded.
• Evaluate the processes and procedures used to store, retrieve, transport, and dispose of confidential information assets.

Content Area  6 - Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery -  14%

• Evaluate the adequacy of backup and restore provisions to ensure the availability of information required to resume processing.
• Evaluate the organization’s disaster recovery plan to ensure that it enables the recovery of IT processing capabilities in the event of a disaster.
• Evaluate the organization’s business continuity plan to ensure its ability to continue essential business operations during the period of an IT disruption.