CISA Prep Course

Starting August 1, 2024, the CISA exam undergoes significant updates.

As of August 1, 2024, ISACA's Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification is undergoing important changes in its job practice areas. The certification will feature updated content outlined in the Exam Content Outline (ECO). It's imperative for candidates who wish to take test after August 1st,  to be aware of these modifications to adequately prepare for the examination.

What is changing

While the five domain headings remain as is, there are adjustments in the percentage distribution across domains in the 2024 ECO compared to the 2019 ECO.

More information will be announced soon.

This course is offered in co-operation with ES Learning, an international consulting and training services company based in Riyadh, which is an Authorized Training Organization (ATO) of ISACA International.

ES-Learning is a Saudi company based in Riyadh, specializing in capacity building and professionalization, by providing specialized workshops and programs in the following areas: Business Process Management, Facilitation through Trainings, Quality & Performance Management, Services Design, Strategy.

As ISACA'S ATOs, our partners meet ISACA's high training standards. Courses are taughted by accredited and certified trainers, follow ethical practices, and use ISACA's designated materials to make sure you get the most up to date training.

CISA Prep course offers you the following:

• 27 hours with a thorough overview and key points of the 5 domain areas of  the CISA Exam
• 2 extra hours for a mock-up exam delivered within 2 months after the end of the course to refresh your knowledge
• ISACA training material
• Post-training access to the instructor for advice and support
• Analysis of particular topics which are popular exam questions
• Practice on the “Philosophy” of the examinations’ questions and testing conditions
• Reference tools
• 27 CPEs

Following each section, you will work through a series of sample questions to give you a "feel" for the format and the types of questions you will encounter.

The instructor will provide you with many reference tools and study guides, together with the official ISACA training material. 

CISA is an exam that tests experience and experience cannot be taught.  This course will give you specific guidelines in your study by providing an overview of the core knowledge bases included in the CISA examination ‘Common Body of Knowledge’.

Participants should continue to study the course materials and rehearse the sample questions after the course until the exam date.

Important:  If you do not have an IT knowledge background -  i.e. you are an Internal  Auditor, or a Business Executive -  you may want to review our 6-hour fast track course "IT Essentials for non IT Auditors".  This course will quickly walk you through basic IT knowledge and best practices of IT Systems and IT Audit principles, to help you better understand all CISA domains.

The CISA certification is ideal for entry-level to mid-career professionals who are planning, executing and reporting on IT audit projects and tasks. Typical participants of this course are:

• IT Auditors, or experienced professionals working in audit projects
• IT managers
• Information Security professionals
• System Analysts
• IT consultants
• Experienced IT Professionals

CISA Certification pre-requisites

To certify with CISA, you must pass the CISA exam and also meet the following prerequisites:

A minimum of 5 years of experience in information systems auditing, control or security (as described in the CISA job practice areas), within the past 10 years from the date you submit your application..  This experience must be in at least one CISA Job Practice Area. Substitutions and waivers may apply for up to 3 years of experience, as follows:

• 1 year of generic information systems experience or 1 year of non-IS auditing experience can be substituted for 1 year of experience
• A 2-year or 4-year university degree can be substituted for 1 or 2 years of experience respectively
• A master’s degree in information security or information technology from an ISACA accredited university can be substituted for 1 year of experience

Introduction to CISA:  Approaching the CISA Examination

• Percentage of test questions and survey results
• Definition of content, tasks questions, model answers

Domain 1: The Process of Auditing Information Systems

• Develop and implement a risk-based IT audit strategy in compliance with IT audit standards to ensure that key areas are included.
• Plan specific audits to determine whether information systems are protected, controlled and provide value to the organization.
• Conduct audits in accordance with IT audit standards to achieve planned audit objectives.
• Report audit findings and make recommendations to key stakeholders to communicate results and effect change when necessary.
• Conduct follow-ups or prepare status reports to ensure that appropriate actions have been taken by management in a timely manner.

Domain 2: Governance and Management of IT

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the IT governance structure to determine whether IT decisions, directions and performance support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate IT organizational structure and human resources (personnel) management to determine whether they support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate the IT strategy, including the IT direction, and the processes for the strategy’s development, approval, implementation and maintenance for alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate the organization’s IT policies, standards, and procedures, and the processes for their development, approval, implementation, maintenance, and monitoring, to determine whether they support the IT strategy and comply with regulatory and legal requirements.
• Evaluate IT management and monitoring of controls (e.g., continuous monitoring, quality assurance [QA]) for compliance with the organization’s policies, standards and procedures.
• Evaluate IT resource investment, use and allocation practices, including prioritization criteria, for alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate IT contracting strategies and policies, and contract management practices to determine whether they support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate risk management practices to determine whether the organization’s IT-related risks are properly managed.
• Evaluate monitoring and assurance practices to determine whether the board and executive management receive sufficient and timely information about IT performance.
• Evaluate the organization’s business continuity plan to determine the organization’s ability to continue essential business operations during the period of an IT disruption.

Domain 3: Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation

• Evaluate the business case for proposed investments in information systems acquisition, development, maintenance and subsequent retirement to determine whether it meets business objectives.
• Evaluate the project management practices and controls to determine whether business requirements are achieved in a cost-effective manner while managing risks to the organization.
• Conduct reviews to determine whether a project is progressing in accordance with project plans, is adequately supported by documentation and status reporting is accurate.
• Evaluate controls for information systems during the requirements, acquisition, development and testing phases for compliance with the organization’s policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements.
• Evaluate the readiness of information systems for implementation and migration into production to determine whether project deliverables controls and the organization’s requirements are met.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews of systems to determine whether project deliverables, controls and the organization’s requirements are met.

Domain 4: Information Systems Operations, and Business Resilience

• Conduct periodic reviews of information systems to determine whether they continue to meet the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate service level management practices to determine whether the level of service from internal and external service providers is defined and managed.
• Evaluate third-party management practices to determine whether the levels of controls expected by the organization are being adhered to by the provider.
• Evaluate operations and end-user procedures to determine whether scheduled and non-scheduled processes are managed to completion.
• Evaluate the use of capacity and performance monitoring tools and techniques to determine whether IT services meet the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate problem and incident management practices to determine whether incidents, problems or errors are recorded, analyzed and resolved in a timely manner.
• Evaluate change, configuration and release management practices to determine whether scheduled and nonscheduled changes made to the organization’s production environment are adequately controlled and documented.
• Evaluate the adequacy of backup and restore provisions to determine the availability of information required to resume processing.
• Evaluate the organization’s disaster recovery plan to determine whether it enables the recovery of IT processing capabilities in the event of a disaster.

Domain 5: Protection of Information Assets.

• Evaluate the information security policies, standards and procedures for completeness and alignment with generally accepted practices.
• Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of system and logical security controls to verify the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.
• Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of the data classification processes and procedures for alignment with the organization’s policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements.
• Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of physical access and environmental controls to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded.
• Evaluate the processes and procedures used to store, retrieve, transport and dispose of information assets (e.g., backup media, offsite storage, hard copy/print data and softcopy media) to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded.

The Anatomy of a CISA Question

How CISA questions are written

The best approach to the CISA Exam

CISA Exam application & logistics