Auditing Information Systems, Second Edition

1.3. APPLICATION PROGRAMS

Application programs are required to make a CPU and system software perform business functions. Many off-the-shelf application programs have been written to perform general tasks such as word processing (e.g., Word, WordPerfect), spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, Lotus 1-2-3), and data analysis (e.g., Access, Paradox). Many other applications have been written to perform specific business functions in a variety of industries (e.g., loan and deposit applications in financial institutions, credit card applications in card issuing companies, computer design applications in automobile and airplane manufacturing firms, and claims processing applications in insurance companies). Several enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications exist that help perform common business functions such as financial accounting, accounts payable, human resources, payroll, fixed assets management, and so on. Examples of these ERP applications include PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle, Baan, J. D. Edwards, and Lawson. Literally millions of other applications have been developed internally by companies and externally by vendors to perform a myriad of business functions, some of them in multiple languages. Each of these applications may or may not have control features designed to help prevent unauthorized access to them. To assess the adequacy of controls over these applications, detailed knowledge of the control features available within the particular applications currently deployed in an organization ...