TY - JOUR
T1 - The design of co-audit
T2 - An experimental testbed system to support research on the next generation of audit technology
AU - Howorka, Gary
AU - Moeur, Laura
AU - Goul, Kenneth
N1 - Funding Information:
THE AUDITING PROFESSION has established a tradition in adapting and applying leading edge technologies, derived from research in the information systems (IS) discipline, to a wide range of practical problems and issues. IS evolutions, including database management systems, telecommunications/networking, decision support systems, and expert systems/knowledge based systems (KBSs), are clearly reflected in historical, existing, and suggested audit technology (Abdolmoham-madi, 1987; EUiott & Jacobson, 1987). While many auditing researchers have recently focused on the design, development, and validation of auditing-oriented KBSs (Messier & Hansen, 1987) IS researchers have made significant progress on three other frontiers: (1) Integrated architectures (Abarbanel & Williams, 1986; Stonebraker, Anton, & Hanson, 1987; Stonebraker & Hearst, 1989), (2) group decision support systems (Gray, 1986; DeSanctis & Gallupe, 1987; Dennis, Requests for reprints should be sent to Michael Goul, Decision Information Systems Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. This work was supported in part by a grant from Sun Microsystems Corporation.
PY - 1991
Y1 - 1991
N2 - Accounting practitioners responsible for conducting audits of large, decentralized organizations face difficult issues including: (1) the decomposition of the auditing process in a manner conducive to organizations' decentralization strategies in such a way as to meet the level of global audit assurance that is required, (2) allocating audit specialists with appropriate levels of experience and knowledge to organizations' sites, and (3) synthesizing specialists' findings to achieve a global vantage point for rendering a comprehensive opinion. This paper addresses item three by describing the design of and our current progress in implementing CO-AUDIT, an experimental testbed system to enable various research agendas in support of developing the next generation of audit technology. As currently implemented the system provides an environment for investigating the sharability of knowledge and data, variables influencing group decision making, consensus building tools, structured auditing approaches, and communication between accounting practitioners engaged in the process of auditing large, decentralized organizations. In addition to addressing these aspects, CO-AUDIT has been designed to be sufficiently robust to facilitate inclusion of existing auditing-oriented knowledge based system applications. CO-AUDIT can be referred to as an experimental testbed system, developed to serve as a platform for facilitating future audit technology research.
AB - Accounting practitioners responsible for conducting audits of large, decentralized organizations face difficult issues including: (1) the decomposition of the auditing process in a manner conducive to organizations' decentralization strategies in such a way as to meet the level of global audit assurance that is required, (2) allocating audit specialists with appropriate levels of experience and knowledge to organizations' sites, and (3) synthesizing specialists' findings to achieve a global vantage point for rendering a comprehensive opinion. This paper addresses item three by describing the design of and our current progress in implementing CO-AUDIT, an experimental testbed system to enable various research agendas in support of developing the next generation of audit technology. As currently implemented the system provides an environment for investigating the sharability of knowledge and data, variables influencing group decision making, consensus building tools, structured auditing approaches, and communication between accounting practitioners engaged in the process of auditing large, decentralized organizations. In addition to addressing these aspects, CO-AUDIT has been designed to be sufficiently robust to facilitate inclusion of existing auditing-oriented knowledge based system applications. CO-AUDIT can be referred to as an experimental testbed system, developed to serve as a platform for facilitating future audit technology research.
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U2 - 10.1016/0957-4174(91)90096-W
DO - 10.1016/0957-4174(91)90096-W
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:2842511880
SN - 0957-4174
VL - 3
SP - 153
EP - 169
JO - Expert Systems With Applications
JF - Expert Systems With Applications
IS - 1
ER -