EDP Topics
Table 2 is a ranking of EDP topics in terms of job requirements for industry auditors.
The 143 industry respondents ranked the 18 EDP topics in the order noted in Table 2. Unfortunately, the two items ranked last, i.e., 17 and 18, Automatic Flowcharting and Ready Trace Listing, respectively, could be very helpful in developing an automated audit trail. Automatic flowcharting packages will print out the COBOL source instructions in a program flow- chart format that can be easily followed. Then, a ready trace listing is obtained by inserting the instruction, READY TRACE, starting in Column 12 of a COBOL source program. The result will be a trace of the data flow through the program as instructions are executed.