Segregation of Duties in Information Technology

Ever since the Sarbanes-Oxley act, generally accepted account rules (GAAP) has required businesses to segregate duties within a company. Segregation of duties entails having more than one person accomplishing a task. In the political sense, it is known as separation of powers. The reason behind this is to minimize risks associated with giving one person too much power enabling the temptation for fraud, money laundering, stealing, etc.
The Information Technology age has made getting information much easier and faster. However, with this technology brings more risk to businesses. Therefore, separation of duties is a must have when it comes to developing software and other entities within the business environment. For example, users who create data should not have access to process their data, and developers should not have permission to work with client's personal accounts. The process of developing to testing to upkeep is a methodical process and no person or department should have complete access to all the information, including the project manager.
From an article entitled: " Defining Segregation of Duties" (November 3, 2006, Processor.com), Ashley Owen, director of product marketing for enterprise application life cycle management solutions at Serena Software quotes:“The essence of separation of duties is one that seeks to reduce risk, increase quality, and lower the costs associated with corrective action within an organization’s internal controls. Midsized organizations should evaluate their present processes, whether documented or automated, and assess the level of risk or exposure to the business of noncompliance.” In essence, she states that along with the risks associated with enabling someone to a dangerous extent, it is also profitable for a company to spread out the workload of a project.
How you ask? The answer is proper management along with tools to help the management. A tool known as "change management software" helps coordinate the overall process of a project. It also is important if production has unexpected changes including participation from multiple business units.
In conclusion, segregation of powers is and has always been important in virtually every aspect of a business from small to global corporations. Today, with technology at its greatest, separation of duties is imperative to minimize costs, increase efficiency, and minimize risks.