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CISA Practice Question: An IT steering committee is evaluating a major…
An IT steering committee is evaluating a major system upgrade. Which of the following is the PRIMARY benefit of using an IT balanced scorecard in this evaluation?
⚠ Common exam trap
CISA often tests the misconception that the balanced scorecard is solely financial or replaces other governance tools, so candidates must remember its multi-perspective nature and its role in strategic alignment.
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
✓
It provides a framework to align IT investments with business strategy across financial, customer, internal process, and learning/growth perspectives.
The IT balanced scorecard provides a framework to align IT investments with business strategy by evaluating performance across four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning/growth. This holistic view ensures that IT initiatives are not just financially driven but also consider customer value, operational efficiency, and future readiness. It is a strategic management tool, not a replacement for a business case or a project management schedule.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
It replaces the need for a detailed business case.
Why it's wrong here
The balanced scorecard supplements, rather than replaces, the business case; it measures strategic performance across four perspectives but does not establish costs, benefits, options or justification. It is tempting because both inform steering committee decisions, yet the business case remains mandatory for investment approval. The scorecard would be correct for ongoing strategic performance measurement.
- ✓
It provides a framework to align IT investments with business strategy across financial, customer, internal process, and learning/growth perspectives.
Why this is correct
The balanced scorecard translates IT activity into financial, customer, internal process, and learning/growth measures, letting the steering committee judge the upgrade against business objectives rather than technical criteria alone. This alignment is its primary benefit.
- ✗
It ensures the project is completed within budget and on time.
Why it's wrong here
Budget and schedule adherence are project-level metrics, not the balanced scorecard's purpose. The IT balanced scorecard translates IT activity into business-value perspectives — financial, customer, internal process and learning — aligning the upgrade with strategic objectives. It would be the right tool for measuring IT's contribution to corporate strategy, not for tracking cost and timeline variance.
- ✗
It focuses solely on the financial returns of IT investments.
Why it's wrong here
An IT balanced scorecard measures IT across customer, internal process, learning and growth, and financial perspectives; financial return is only one quadrant, so a solely financial focus contradicts its purpose. It is tempting because ROI is a familiar steering-committee metric, and a financial-only view would suit pure cost-benefit appraisal, but not balanced evaluation.
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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.