To assist in the capture process a new research tool was developed - KASE Knowledge Acquisition System Evaluator. This tool simulates the future paperless audit automated environment, permits capturing of a full trace of the auditor's information search behaviour, and tracks decision making in a controlled experimental setting. Results of the experiment are output into a series of files used as input into SPSS for Windows for further statistical analysis and review. In addition, an auto-generated SPSS program file with definition of variables and variable labels is produced. Different information presentation order manipulated in the experiment induced a cognitive load on both groups of auditors and produced significant differences in the search and decision strategies used.
Further analysis is currently underway and written protocols are yet to be analysed.
Potential contributions of this research include the development of a generic research tool KASE that may be used in a wide variety of research in information systems and other domains. The KASE facilities should assist IS audit researchers to understand experienced and less experienced IS auditors information search and decision behaviour as well as explanations of that behaviour. The information cue trace, decisions made and explanations from experienced auditors allows a cognitive model of the process to be constructed. This may be useful to expert systems researchers and be of assistance to novices learning in the IS audit domain. Finally this research contributes towards a theory of the process of auditing in an IS audit domain.