IPA IP 2025 Question 52
A question IPA Japan published in 令和7年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問52, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
Company A has launched a project for rebuilding its accounting system, and has outsourced the system development to Company B. Who is appropriate as the auditor who performs a system audit of whether the procedures concerning the quality management of the project are complied with in the acceptance inspection of the deliverables delivered by Company B?
Explanation
A leader of an administrative department of Company A who is not involved in the rebuilding — the auditor must be independent of the project whose procedures are audited.
The audit checks whether the acceptance inspection followed the project’s quality management procedures. Everyone who runs those procedures or produces what is inspected is part of the audit subject: Company A’s project team, which performs the acceptance inspection, and Company B’s team, which delivers the deliverables. A leader of an administrative department of Company A who has no part in the rebuilding is outside both, so the judgement can be objective.
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) — the project manager is responsible for the project’s quality management and its acceptance inspection, so this would be auditing their own work
- •(c) — the development leader of Company B produced the deliverables being inspected
- •(d) — Company B’s quality manager is responsible for the quality of those deliverables, so is part of the audit subject too
Key rule: Independence comes first in choosing an auditor: no one who carries out, manages or delivers the work audited may audit it, however expert.
System Audit · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.