（2008）An analysis of service-oriented architecture to determine the impact on the activities performed by the external auditor of a SOA service consumer.pdfVIP

An analysis of service-oriented architecture (SOA) to determine the impact on the activities performed by the external auditor of a SOA service consumer R Butler Department of Accounting University of Stellenbosch Abstract Various forms of IT sourcing used by audit clients create issues of concern for external auditors. This article investigates the nature and basic characteristics of service-oriented architecture (SOA), a modern information system architecture strategy, to ascertain whether the use of SOA by a service consumer audit client would have an impact on the activities typically performed by the external auditor. It was found that SOA presents a complete shift in the way IT application functionality is constructed and integrated and inevitably effects changes in the accounting system and the related internal controls of the SOA service consumer. As a result SOA has a significant impact on the activities performed during the audit process and introduces various SOA-related aspects that need to be considered by the external auditor of a SOA service consumer. Key words External auditor IT sourcing, Service-oriented architecture 1 Introduction Today information technology (IT) is seen as an integral part of enterprise strategy (Hinson 2007). Businesses are increasingly using and integrating the latest available IT functionality, computerised systems and related controls as part of their accounting processes (Taylor 2006b). However, new developments in IT create a “never-ending stream of issues of concern to IT auditors” (Hinson 2007:14) who are obliged to evaluate and test the internal controls and processes incorporated into these modern systems of audit clients (IAASB 2004b; IAASB 2006a) in order to express an opinion o