IT Audits: A Checklist

IT audits need to be comprehensive. In this article, you will learn what topics need to be addressed during IT audits.

IT audits need to be as comprehensive as possible. To ensure you hit every area you need to during your IT audits, review this checklist.


• IT Audits - Physical Security:
To ensure that appropriate physical controls are in place to secure technology assets (servers, networking and telecommunications equipment) preventing unauthorized access.
• IT Audits - Logical Security:
To ensure that appropriate software security controls are in place to prevent viruses and unauthorized data access.
• IT Audits - Logistical and Environmental Controls:
To ensure that systems, networking and telecommunications equipment are housed in facilities designed to offer proper environmental conditions (regarding temperature and dust regulation, furniture, racks and physical equipment organization)
• IT Audits - Configuration Management:
To ensure that systems are installed and configured according to established requirements and standards.
• IT Audits - Systems Administration Procedures:
To ensure that security and systems administrative procedures are properly defined and assigned to staff.
• IT Audits - Hardware Inventory Management:
To ensure that all hardware is properly inventoried and that warranty and maintenance records are maintained.
• IT Audits - Software Licensing Compliance:
To ensure that all software usage is in compliance with licensing agreements, and that appropriate licensing records are maintained.
• IT Audits - Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Procedures:
To ensure that data backups are being made and tested on a scheduled basis, sufficient to recover in the event of a systems failure, data loss, or other disaster.
• IT Audits - Documentation:
To ensure that all systems, procedures, and policies are properly documented and updated, including the appropriate retention of systems reports, error, help desk, and other related problem logs.
• IT Audits - Performance and Capacity Planning:
To ensure that all systems are performing according to required levels, considering uptime, systems availability, bandwidth, data storage availability, and the archival of older data files.
• IT Audits - Change Management: to ensure that all major changes to systems hardware and software are properly documented, tested and verified prior to implementation, with appropriate back-out plans.

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IT Audits: The Next Step

After Your IT audits, you need to go into planning mode. Create a spreadsheet with tasks and when they're do to facilitate continued business after IT audits.

With most of your clients, once the relationship is established and IT audits are complete, you should move into a project plan mode where you set up a spreadsheet and organize it on a monthly basis.

During IT audits, you’re going to find that some things have to be done this month; some can wait until next month, and many things should be added to a wish list.

Wish Lists Defined

The wish list things are going to be those things that either have to be done because there’s a vendor or regulatory agency driving it, or there’s a product that’s becoming obsolete and won’t be supported anymore. Whatever the reason, a bunch of wish list projects will need to be done at a certain date.

Your best bet, and their best bet, is for you to keep track of the wish list items as if you were their full-time IT manager. Put the tasks down by month. That’s your future revenue stream.

How to Organize Tasks.

After IT audits, your first priority should be organizing tasks. It is as simple as setting up an Excel spreadsheet and putting a couple columns in there like Month, Task, Estimated Labor Cost, Estimated Product Cost for software peripherals, hardware, and a column if you need to bring in an outside contractor or vendor.

Let’s say they have an old Citrix server and they know that it needs to be upgraded because it hasn’t been touched in three or four years. If you don’t have a lot of expertise on metaframe, knowing that the project is coming up would give you plenty of time to go out and look for a specialty contractor in your area who does have Citrix metaframe expertise and is certified.

Keeping organized helps you to plan ahead with their ideas in mind.

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