A new approach for IT audit? : Testing the theory of technology debt in an IT audit setting

Abstract

Background and problem: The amounts companies spend in IT investments have increased greatly the last couple of decades. To control IT the companies perform IT audits. This is a complicated and expensive procedure which lack common standards. To contribute to the research stream within IT audit this thesis’ purpose is to test the recently proposed theory of Technology Debt in the process of performing a simple IT audit. Purpose: The objective is to test the theory of Technology Debt in an IT audit setting to evaluate the usefulness of the theory. Method: To test the theory the authors did three studies: A literature study to gain a wider understanding of the subject and to create a simple IT audit process. A secondary analysis of qualitative data to test the theory and finally an interview study to further test the theory potential. Results: The literature study complemented the theory of Technology Debt and provided the authors with an easy IT audit process. In the secondary analysis the theory was useful as a tool for identification and categorization. Finally in the interview study the theory provided a valuation criterion to evaluate the IT environment. The thesis contributes to the knowledge base of IT auditing by supplying a new angle of approach and try a new area of application for Technology Debt.