2.1 Audit objectives and scope
The objective of the audit was to examine whether the Department had adopted effective IT system development practices and had the change management processes, skills, training, and governance to effectively update and modernize VAC’s IT systems in an agile fashion to support the fast pace of change. The audit had three subobjectives:
- Project management and system development life cycle methodology: assess the policies, frameworks, processes, and governance committees to ensure effectiveness in employing agile methodology.
- Application of IT practices and processes: examine training, skills, and capacity to support agile approach to system development to assess whether effective approaches are taken to deliver projects.
- Change management and organizational support: examine whether collaborative efforts are functioning well with an agile approach and if there are any barriers to modernization and system change.
Scope
The scope of this audit covered departmental governance, system development and project management practices in place from November 2022 to July 2023. The audit team also reviewed IT projects and system development activities going back to 2018, namely the Pension for Life project.
The findings and conclusions in this report are based on sufficient and appropriate audit evidence gathered in accordance with procedures that meet the Institute of Internal Auditors’ International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing as supported by the results of the quality assurance and improvement program. The opinions expressed in this report are based on conditions as they existed at the time of the audit and apply only to the entity examined.
Glossary of terms included in Appendix B. Additional information on the audit criteria and methodology are provided in Appendices C and D.