Ethical Practices In Software Audits Chicago

By Christopher White


The final activity in application development is documentation of processes, stakeholders, budget among others involved in building the program. Assessors require such documentation to evaluate the level of compliance. At the beginning of program development, guiding standards of methodologies, processes including others are stipulated. Reviewers are contracted to ensure that such programs have complied with the initial standards. Software Audits Chicago follows basic principles which are discussed below.

The foundation of every review process is integrity. This is the ability to do what is right whether watched or not. Applications reviewing is a process which requires a number of tasks to complete. Similarly, it involves access to very confidential data. For this reason, auditors must be very honest about what they do. Further, they must adhere to legal regulations as required by clients. Reviewers should be impartial, collecting evidence from all sampled data. Normally, some managers or senior officers in client companies try to influence decisions made by reviewers. For this reason, auditors must also be stern on their decisions.

The second most important factor is expressing fairness in their judgments. In many cases, review processes reveal sensitive matters. No matter who is affected, reports and recommendations should expose this information as required. Further, reports must highlight various challenges encountered during the process. Similarly, any unresolved disagreements which may have arisen should not be hidden. While giving such information, auditors must be able to defend it with evidence. Precisely, assessors have to be unbiased.

Professionalism cuts across all official duties. This is defined as carrying out tasks effectively, expressing responsibility and understanding of what one is doing. Experts are required to exercise a high level of professionalism in collecting data, interpreting and as well reporting. Clients are confident that hired specialists understand their roles as well as respect boundaries.

The fourth consideration is confidentiality. When carrying out programs assessment, auditors may be allowed to access very personal data of clients. Regardless of the kind of information seen, it should not be let out at any point. Similarly, assessors must not use such data for individual gains. Information in the soft copy is prone to leakage. For this reason, auditors ought to look out for any loopholes and seal them before the review.

Proper company practices require auditors to be independent people with no form of relationship with clients. This is important for numerous reasons. One, external inspectors are more likely to be unbiased. This is because such have no other interest in such processes. Secondly, they are more independent in decision making. Being outsiders, the probability of being influenced by managers and senior officials in Client Company is lower. However, for organizations that cannot hire outsiders, an internal team can be chosen. These team should ensure they uphold these principles for better outcomes.

Reviewers write reports as well as give recommendations based on information gathered from evidence. Evidence-based methodology is verifiable hence can stand trials even in a court of law. Due to time plus resources inadequacy, auditors may not use all available information. Accurate samples may be drawn from major data. Samples are a reflection of what the main data contains.

In short, there are six principles that guide any application assessment process. These are integrity, independence, confidentiality, evidence-based approach, fair presentation besides professionalism.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment