Designing the Interview Questions

Designing the interview questions is a crucial process in interviews (Collis &

Hussey, 2003: 168). Moreover, the way in which questions are asked during the interview has a major bearing on how the responses are likely to be (King, 2004: 17).

King (2004: 15) indicated that there are three sources for topics to be included in an interview guide: the research literature, the interviewer‘s own personal knowledge and experience of the area, and informal preliminary work such as discussions with people who have personal experience of the research area. These three sources were used when preparing the interview guide.

The interview questions, for this study, were designed in two stages. The first version of the interview guide (Appendix 3) was designed according to the topics that have been mentioned in the literature review (Chapter 2) combined with the issues that arose in the preliminary interviews (explained in section 6.2.1). The interview questions were pilot-tested in two pilot studies conducted in two audit firms with four participants. One of the main purposes of the pilot study was to assess the suitability and the appropriateness of the interview questions. Maxwell (2005) indicated that the

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researcher should pilot-test the interview guide with people as much like the planned interviewees as possible to determine if the questions work as intended and what revisions the researcher should consider. The interviews conducted in the pilot cases showed that some modifications had to take place on the interview questions, where some questions were cancelled and others were added, to produce the final version of the interview questions (shown in Appendix 4).

The general topics and themes covered in the interviews are summarised as follows:

1. The type of the electronic systems used by the auditors‘ clients.

2. The problems the financial auditors and the information system auditors face when dealing with advanced electronic systems.

3. Issues of the internal controls

4. The influence of the electronic audit evidence on the audit process.

5. The influence of the IT client staff on the audit.

6. The influence of the electronic system‘s vendor on the audit process.

7. Using CAATs in auditing electronic systems.

8. The quality of the Egyptian educational system to provide qualified auditors.

9. The relationship between the financial auditors and the information system auditors in the audit firms.

10. The audit fees and any financial concerns when auditing in advanced electronic environments.

11. The suitability of the International auditing standards and the need for an Egyptian auditing standard¹.

1 In June 2008, Ministerial Decree 166/2008 was issued to approve the release of thirty eight Egyptian audit and limited inspection standards. The new 38 standards will replace the current standards, and will be effective by January 2009. The interviews were conducted from June-October 2007 before issuing this ministerial decree.

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A semi-structured interview approach was employed (as discussed in chapter 4) to address the questions. This approach was viewed as the most appropriate way to obtain the in-depth views and experiences of the financial auditors and the information system auditors, in the three audit firms, who deal with advanced electronic environments.

The questions were designed as open-ended questions using phrases that can help in exploring the participants‘ points of view such as: what do you think about this issue?

Can you discuss further this point? Such design gives the chance for participants to explain their point of view in detail, and allows the interviewer to ask follow up questions, when needed, to encourage the interviewees to provide more information about the issue under discussion.

Most of the questions (21 in total) were asked to all the interviewees (financial auditors and information system auditors) in the main case studies including the three audit firms. However, in some interviews the researcher did not ask all the questions because either the responses of the interviewees for former questions included the answers of later questions, or because the interviewees did not show their interest in specific issues. In this case I preferred to lose their answers to some questions rather than lose their interest in the whole interview. Moreover, one question (about hiring information system auditors) was asked to the partner of the computer audit department in the three audit firms as they are responsible for choosing their staff.

Another question (about judging the competence of the information system auditors) was asked only to the financial auditors to understand how they can rely on the work of the information system auditors.

183 6.4. The Participants

As discussed previously in Section 6.2, the study was conducted in three stages: the exploratory stage, the pilot study stage and the main study stage. The interviewees were chosen so that they could provide the needed information in each stage. Table 6.1 shows the features of the participants included in the three stages of the study.

No. Position Group ^{Years of}

experience

International

certification Audit firm Stage

1 Partner Audit division 19 CPA International big four

audit firm Exploratory 2 Managing

partner Audit division 20 CPA International audit firm Exploratory

3 Partner Audit division 23 None 100% Egyptian audit

firm Exploratory

4 Partner Audit division 21 None 100% Egyptian audit

firm Exploratory

5 Partner Computer audit

division 18 CISA International audit firm Exploratory 6 Audit manager Audit division 13 None International audit firm Exploratory 7 Audit manager Audit division 14 None 100% Egyptian audit

firm Exploratory

Table ‎6.1: Information about the Participants in the Three Stages

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In the exploratory stage, I aimed to have an overview of the audit market in Egypt as no literature covers this area. Seven interviews were conducted with auditors who have experience ranged between 13-23 years in auditing which is an indicator that they have good information about the Egyptian audit market. Moreover, the interviewees are working in different audit firms: international big four audit firms, international audit firms (but not from the big four), and 100% Egyptian audit firms where they do not have a foreign partner. Such diversity provides a holistic perspective about the situation in the Egyptian audit market and how auditors in different audit firms deal with advanced electronic environments.

In the pilot study stage, four interviews were conducted in two audit firms. The participants were chosen to be key persons who could provide the researcher with good feedback concerning the questions, detailed information concerning the topic under discussion, and also who could facilitate access to other auditors in the audit firm. In each audit firm two key persons were interviewed, the first was a partner in the Audit Division, and the second was a partner who is responsible for the Computer Audit Division. All the participants are certified with experience ranged between 10 and 25 years. This indicates that they are a suitable source of the information needed in this stage.

In the final stage, the interviewees varied between financial auditors and information system auditors in three audit firms (A, B, & C) who could provide good information about dealing with electronic systems. The findings of the data collection and analysis are presented in Chapter 7.

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