Information technology (IT) has a pervasive influence and it is a critical factor in many organizations. As such, it’s often one of the most valuable assets an organization owns and uses as a cost-effective tool to attain their goals. But IT can also be a failure factor if the strategy used in designing, deploying and maintaining the IT architecture doesn’t meet or converge with the overall strategy of the organization and it’s continuous need for information. Enterprise architecture incorporates the main enablers an entity needs to achieve this convergence. From the internal audit’s function perspective this can raise a wide range of challenges due to business strategy amendments that has an influence on the information system and the supporting technical architecture. The aim of this article is to set off the way an enterprise’s architecture influences the work of the internal auditor in performing an IT audit.

internal audit, IT audit, enterprise architecture