IT Audits: How Long Do They Take?

IT audits should not take forever. For on-site audits, they should take around four hours. During this time, you'll want to figure out exactly what’s going on, what should be done next, how to prioritize it, and what hardware and software and services, peripherals and other similar items they need to buy.

Now, of course, there will be more that needs to done and for most projects you'll need to do some more exploratory work, but do that later. Bill that as an added fee at a different time. Don't overwhelm the company the first day or use time you can't bill.

Having trouble staying within the time limits? Try this breakdown:

• Half hour to an hour on a primary server.
  
  
• If they have a secondary server, maybe another 15 or 20 minutes.
  
  
• A few minutes on LAN hub infrastructure.
  
  
• Looking at routers, CSUs, DSUs, DSL routers, hub switches in blocks of 10 or 15 minutes, making some general notes as to how it looks on visual inspection and some things you may notice with LADs or surge protection.
  
  
• Half hour to 45 minutes on a couple representative PCs. These are PCs that represent how software and networks and configured. They may also run some of the most important software for the company like accounting software. Just ask your contact person, they'll point you in the right direction.

To learn more about planning and conducting IT audits, read the entire article (link above).

Posted by Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit