CISA Governance and Management of IT Practice Question
An IT audit revealed that the organization's IT steering committee has not met in the past six months. Which of the following is the MOST likely consequence of this situation?
⚠ Common exam trap
CISA often tests the distinction between governance and management; candidates may confuse the steering committee's strategic role with operational issues like security incidents or staff turnover, but the most direct consequence of its inactivity is delayed investment decisions.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Delayed decision-making on IT investments.
The IT steering committee is responsible for strategic IT governance, including prioritizing and approving IT investments. If it does not meet, decisions on IT investments are delayed because there is no forum to review, prioritize, and approve them. This directly impacts the organization's ability to align IT with business goals and can stall critical projects.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Higher IT staff turnover.
Why it's wrong here
Steering committee inactivity affects governance and oversight of IT investment and strategy, not staffing morale or retention. Turnover stems from HR and management factors. Tempting because poor governance can indirectly demoralise staff, but that link is speculative, whereas policy and alignment consequences are direct.
- ✗
Increased number of security incidents.
Why it's wrong here
Security incidents stem from control weaknesses, threat exposure and operational failures, not from the steering committee's meeting cadence. Tempting because governance lapses can weaken oversight of security, but the direct, likely consequence is unaligned IT strategy and policy, not incident volume.
- ✗
Inconsistent IT policies across departments.
Why it's wrong here
A dormant steering committee primarily removes strategic oversight and escalation, allowing IT initiatives to drift from business objectives and unmanaged risk to accumulate. Inconsistent departmental policies is tempting because committees do harmonise standards, but that symptom stems from absent policy ownership, not from the committee's failure to convene itself.
- ✓
Delayed decision-making on IT investments.
Why this is correct
A stalled steering committee removes the governance forum where cross-functional IT investment proposals are prioritised and approved, so funding decisions queue up unresolved. This directly satisfies the stem's six-month gap, making delayed decision-making on IT investments the most likely consequence rather than an operational or security failure.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISACA exam blueprint
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CISA exam.