Development of Critical Success Factors for the Projects of the Control Procedures Evaluation within the Organization's Internal Control System

Problems that lead to the increase of the projects duration as well as to the excess of the planned projects budget, and poor quality results often arise when a consulting company conducts projects of the general information technology controls (GITC) evaluation within a client organization’s internal control system. The goal of the study is to develop critical success factors (CSFs) that contribute to the success of these projects. The following main tasks were set and solved in order to achieve the goal: determining the methodological basis of the study, reviewing and analyzing of standards and recommendations on the organization of the client organization’s internal control system and IT audit, and CSF development methods. Based on the analysis of the projects of the GITC evaluation within a client organization’s internal control system of the consulting company as well as on the methodology used for their management, the specifics of the implementation of these projects are determined. Taking into account the identified specifics of such projects implementation, the study proposed an approach for developing the CSFs for the projects of the GITC evaluation within a client organization’s internal control system. On its basis, the CSFs and their performance indicators were developed for the consulting company and such type of projects, and recommendations were given on the use of these CSFs. A practical example of the application of the developed CSFs on a real project is given. The key result that determines the novelty of this study is the CSFs developed for the consulting company and the projects of the GITC evaluation within a client organization’s internal control system, taking into account the specifics of the such projects implementation. The results of the study can be used by the consultants of the consulting company, as well as by other similar consulting companies while working on similar projects.