CISA Information System Auditing Process Practice Question
This CISA practice question tests your understanding of information system auditing process. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
An IS auditor is evaluating the effectiveness of an organization's change management process. Which of the following is the most important control to verify during the audit?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
A segregation of duties exists between development and production.
Segregation of duties between development and production environments ensures that code cannot be directly moved from development to production without independent review and testing. This control prevents unauthorized or untested code from affecting live systems, which is a fundamental principle of change management. Without this separation, a developer could introduce malicious or defective code directly into production, bypassing all quality and security checks.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
All changes are approved by the IT manager.
Why it's wrong here
Approval by a single individual may not provide adequate oversight.
✗
Emergency changes are documented after implementation.
Why it's wrong here
Documentation after implementation is important but not the most important control.
✓
A segregation of duties exists between development and production.
Why this is correct
Segregation of duties is a key preventive control.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Change requests are prioritized by business impact.
Why it's wrong here
Prioritization is a process efficiency, not a control.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often focus on approval or prioritization controls (options A and D) as the most important, overlooking the foundational technical control of segregation of duties that directly prevents unauthorized code from reaching production.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In practice, segregation of duties is enforced through environment-level access controls (e.g., using role-based access control in CI/CD pipelines) and separate credentials for development and production systems. For example, a developer might have write access to a development Git branch but only read access to the production branch, with a separate release manager or automated pipeline handling the merge and deployment. This aligns with the principle of least privilege and is a key control in frameworks like COBIT and ITIL to prevent unauthorized changes.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the CISA exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Information System Auditing Process — This question tests Information System Auditing Process — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A segregation of duties exists between development and production. — Segregation of duties between development and production environments ensures that code cannot be directly moved from development to production without independent review and testing. This control prevents unauthorized or untested code from affecting live systems, which is a fundamental principle of change management. Without this separation, a developer could introduce malicious or defective code directly into production, bypassing all quality and security checks.
What should I do if I get this CISA question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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