CISA Certification Training - The Key to Success
Talking about
Information Systems auditing professionalism people tend to think
about CISA first. So, why is it so important for the modern society? Why
does an employer pay so much attention to it? Let’s try to consider it
together.
It goes without saying that the world of today is moving and changing
very fast. So today the majority of big and small companies are under
the pressure of testing and improving the quality of managing
information. So every company, organization or agency is badly in need
of professionals in Information Systems auditing subject area. But so
that to become a competent and qualified professional in the mentioned
area, you should get a
CISA certification. And then be sure that all the ways are opened
for you and your career. These beautiful words can be proved with
statistics data. Seventy one percent of certified Information Systems
professionals say that the certification has favored their career, while
seventy five percent of people who are thinking about getting the
certification feel that it could be valuable for them in future career.
CISA, or Certified Information Systems Auditor, was recognized in 1978,
and there were certain reasons for that, among which can be enumerated
the following ones:
• It was time to create something for evaluating qualification and
competency of information systems auditors
• It was necessary to maintain auditors’ skills and provide them with
motivation
• Company management needed a tool to facilitate selection of IS staff
Actually, the CISA certification is not obligatory but its recognition
is growing from day to day, and it is required by many employers.
The history of CISA examinations dates back to the year 1981. It was
sponsored by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, or
ISACA. ISACA is an international organization that reflects a wide
range of IT professionals. It wonders that the Information Systems Audit
and Control Association name is dying away, and only ISACA acronym tends
to be used lately.
ISACA was set up as early as 1967 in the U.S. The idea of starting such
sort of organization belongs to a group of professionals who realized
the necessity of a centralized information source creating.
Those who have got interested in obtaining a CISA certification, have
to:
• pass an exam
• follow ISACA's Code of Professional Ethics
• obtain at least five years of Information Systems professional
experience
• continue professional education
• follow Information Systems Auditing Standards
• As far as an exam is concerned, it involves 200
multiple-choice questions to answer within a four hour period of
time. ISACA has from 200 to 800 points on its scale. The better the
result is, the more points you will get. The lowest point to pass an
exam successfully is 450. Then, as I have already mentioned professional
experience goes. I suppose everything is clear here. Anyway, pay
attention to some waivers of this requirement. For example, if you have
a year of financial, operational auditing or information systems
experience, it can be replaced by a year of required professional
experience. Then, 60 and 120 college hours can be replaced by one and
two years of experience respectively. The third point goes that a master
or bachelor’s university degree or two years of working as a university
instructor (only a full time one and working in any related area) can
also be replaced by a one year of experience. And one more important
thing is the time the experience is gained. Keep in mind that the
professional experience must be gained either within a 10 year period
before an exam or within a 5 year period after it. You may doubt the
necessity of continuing education. But it has its own objectives. For
example, every professional has to maintain his competency. Precisely
that is why the CISA certification was created. This point of CISA
certification means at least 20 contact hours per year and 120 contact
hours more within a three year period of time.
The year of 2006 some amendments in the system were made, so now it is
divided into six content areas. You can see them below:
• IS Audit Process (10% of Exam)
• IT Governance (15% of Exam)
• Systems and Infrastructure Lifecycle Management (16% of Exam)
• IT Service Delivery and Support (14% of Exam)
• Protection of Information Assets (31% of Exam)
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (14% of Exam)
Nowadays there are a great number of
CISA certification training programs that will favor studying the
subject area in depth and becoming a qualified professional in demand.