Implementation and acceptance of expert systems by auditors;

              Implementation and Acceptance of Expert Systems by Auditors
Maureen McGowan
Price Waterhouse World Firm Services BV*
OVERVIEW
Remarkably powerful computers are now widely available at a cost that enables auditors, in principle, to achieve increased efficiency and effectiveness in their work. It is certainly true that auditors can benefit from the same generic software tools as every other professional — they can take advantage of any of several "office" suites consisting of word processing, spreadsheet, databases, presentation software, electronic mail, and so forth. The addition of a commercial package for flowcharting might well round out an adequate set of tools for auditors. Of course, mere adequacy is an uninteresting aspiration. What additional kinds of tools could provide additional leverage for the auditor? What impact will such tools have on the audit practice?
Technology tools can have wide ranging impacts on an organization, its staff, the work that they do, and how they do it. The benefits promised by the tools can be lost if the behavioral impacts resulting from the use of the software are ignored. Many theories exist relating to sources of resistance and implementation strategies to minimize resistance. McGowan (1986) catalogued many of these theories and discussed their application to audit technology.
This paper describes two tools developed at the Price Waterhouse World Firm Technology Centre in Menlo Park, California and their current and predicted impact on the audit practice. These tools are:
• Planet: an expert system for assessing risk and selecting audit procedures; and
• Comet: a model-based system for identifying key internal controls, documenting weaknesses, and making internal control recommendations.
Planet Background
Planet is an expert system for audit planning: in particular, for risk identification and audit procedure selection. Based on an auditor's answers to a series of questions, it makes risk assessments for the particular audit engagement and automatically chooses a set of audit procedures to satisfy the identified risks. Planet provides detailed explanations using a graphical display for all conclusions reached. Planet also has user-friendly tools for reviewing and editing the audit plan so that any member of the audit team can understand why each procedure has been included in the audit plan.
The Planet Knowledge Base
Planet is an expert system in the traditional sense: it captures the accumulated knowledge of human experts in a narrow domain. Its knowledge base was built using input from the audit partners and managers on a wide variety of engagements from around the world. The knowledge is represented by over 5000 logical axioms which are similar to if-then rules. These rules represent the
* The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Price Waterhouse World Firm Services BV. Please do not quote without permission.
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