Chapter 5— Systems Development and Program Change Activities TRUE/FALSE 1. The objective of systems planning is to link systems projects to the strategic objectives of the firm. ANS: T PTS: 1 2. The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) concept applies to specific applications and not to strategic systems planning. ANS: F PTS: 1 3. An accountant’s responsibility in the SDLC is to ensure that the system applies proper accounting conventions and rules and possesses adequate control. ANS: T PTS: 1 4. In the conceptual design phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), task force members are focused on selecting the new system design. ANS: F PTS: 1 5. When determining the operational feasibility of a new system, the expected ease of transition from the old system to the new system should be considered. ANS: T PTS: 1 6. One-time costs include operating and maintenance costs. ANS: F PTS: 1 7. When preparing a cost-benefit analysis, design costs incurred in the systems planning, systems analysis and conceptual design phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle are relevant costs. ANS: F PTS: 1 8. A tangible benefit can be measured and expressed in financial terms. ANS: T PTS: 1 9. Instead of implementing an application in a single big-bang release, modern systems are delivered in parts continuously and quickly ANS: T PTS: 1 10. When the nature of the project and the needs of the user permit, most organizations will seek a pre-coded commercial software package rather than develop a system in-house. ANS: T PTS: 1 11. All of the steps in the Systems Development Life Cycle apply to software that is developed in-house and to commercial software. ANS: F PTS: 1 12. Mixing technologies from many vendors improves technical feasibility. ANS: F PTS: 1 13. The first step in the SDLC is to develop a systems strategy ANS: T PTS: 1 14. System maintenance is often viewed as the first phase of a new development cycle. ANS: T PTS: 1 15. During the detailed feasibility study of the project, the systems professional who proposed the project should be involved in performing the study. ANS: F PTS: 1 16. Recurring costs include: hardware maintenance, software acquisition, software maintenance, insurance, supplies, personnel costs. ANS: F PTS: 1
17. The payback method is often more useful than the net present value method for evaluating systems projects because the effective lives of information system tend to be short and shorter payback projects are often desirable. ANS: T PTS: 1 18. Intangible benefits are not physical, but can be measured and expressed in financial terms. ANS: F PTS: 1 19. Legal feasibility identifies conflicts between the proposed system and the company’s ability to discharge its legal responsibilities ANS: T PTS: 1 20. Programs in their compiled state are very susceptible to the threat of unauthorized modification. ANS: F PTS: 1 21. Maintenance access to systems increases the risk that logic will be corrupted either by the accident or intent to defraud. ANS: T PTS: 1 22. Source program library controls should prevent and detect unauthorized access to application programs. ANS: T PTS: 23. The user test and acceptance procedure is the last point at which the user can determine the system’s acceptability prior to it going into service. ANS: T PTS: 1 24. The presence of a SPLMS effectively guarantees program integrity. ANS: F PTS: 1 25. Firms with an independent internal audit staff may conduct tests of the system development life cycle on an ongoing basis. ANS: T PTS: 1 MULTIPLE CHOICES 1. Which control is not associated with new systems development activities? a. reconciling program version numbers 2. Which test of controls will provide evidence that the system as originally implemented was free from material errors and free from fraud? Review of the documentation indicates that c. tests were conducted at the individual module and total system levels prior to implementation 3. Routine maintenance activities require all of the following controls except d. internal audit approval 4. Which statement is correct? b. the source program library stores application programs in source code form 5. Which control is not a part of the source program library management system? c. combining access to the development and maintenance test libraries 6. Which control ensures that production files cannot be accessed without specific permission? c. Source Program Library Management System 7. Program testing b. requires creation of meaningful test data 8. Which statement is not true?
a. An audit objective for systems maintenance is to detect unauthorized access to application databases. 9. When the auditor reconciles the program version numbers, which audit objective is being tested? a. protect applications from unauthorized changes 10. Which is not a level of a data flow diagram? a. conceptual level 11. Which statement is not correct? The structured design approach c. assembles reusable modules rather than creating systems from scratch 12. The benefits of the object-oriented approach to systems design include all of the following except a. this approach does not require input from accountants and auditors 13. Which level of a data flow diagram is used to produce program code and database tables? b. elementary level 14. Evaluators of the detailed feasibility study should not include d. the system designer 15. A cost-benefit analysis is a part of the detailed d. economic feasibility study 16. Examples of one-time costs include all of the following except b. insurance 17. Examples of recurring costs include c. personnel costs 18. A commercial software system that is completely finished, tested, and ready for implementation is called a d. turnkey system 19. Which of the following is not an advantage of commercial software? Commercial software b. can be easily modified to the user’s exact specifications 20. Which step is least likely to occur when choosing a commercial software package? a. a detailed review of the source code 21. The output of the detailed design phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a c. detailed system design report 22. The detailed design report contains all of the following except b. alternative conceptual designs 23. System documentation is designed for all of the following groups except d. all of the above require systems documentation 24. Which type of documentation shows the detailed relationship of input files, programs, and output files? c. system flowchart 25. Typical contents of a run manual include all of the following except b. logic flowchart 26. Computer operators should have access to all of the following types of documentation except b. a program code listing 27. Which task is not essential during a data conversion procedure? a. decomposing the system
28. When converting to a new system, which cutover method is the most conservative? c. parallel operation cutover 29. Site preparation costs include all of the following except c. supplies 30. The testing of individual program modules is a part of d. programming costs 31. When implementing a new system, the costs associated with transferring data from one storage medium to another is an example of b. a data conversion cost 32. An example of a tangible benefit is c. reduced inventories 33. An example of an intangible benefit is c. more efficient operations 34. A tangible benefit a. can be measured and expressed in financial terms b. might increase revenues c. might decrease costs d. all of the above 35. Intangible benefits c. are sometimes estimated using customer satisfaction surveys 36. Which technique is least likely to be used to quantify intangible benefits? d. review of accounting transaction data 37. The formal product of the systems evaluation and selection phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle is b. the systems selection report 38. One-time costs include all of the following except b. insurance 39. Typically a systems analysis c. identifies user needs and specifies system requirements 40. A disadvantage of surveying the current system is a. it constrains the generation of ideas about the new system 41. Systems analysis involves all of the following except c. redesigning bottleneck activities 42. The systems analysis report does not d. specify the system processing methods 43. After the systems analysis phase of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is complete, the company will have a formal systems analysis report on c. users’ needs and requirements for the new system 44. The accountant’s role in systems analysis includes all of the following except b. prepare data gathering questionnaires 45. The role of the steering committee includes b. resolving conflicts that arise from a new system 46. Project planning includes all of the following except c. selecting hardware vendors 47. Aspects of project feasibility include all of the following except c. logistic feasibility 47. Which of the following is not a tool of systems analysts? c. audit reports
49. When developing the conceptual design of a system, d. inputs, processes, and outputs that distinguish one alternative from another are identified 50. The role of the accountant/internal auditor in the conceptual design phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle includes all of the following except a. the accountant is responsible for designing the physical system 51. Recurring costs include all of the following except a. data conversion 52. Strategic systems planning is important because the plan a. provides authorization control for the Systems Development Life Cycle 53. Project feasibility includes all of the following except b. conceptual feasibility
