Software Accreditation Metamodels for Compliance Workload Planning
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Solution Overview
Problem
The process of software accreditation is time-consuming and inefficient due to the repetitive implementation of overlapping controls and the need for manual identification and planning of assessment procedures, which is exacerbated by the large number of controls (typically 400-500) required for each application.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing meta models to automate the accreditation process by extracting and refining data from regulatory documents, generating meta models that include information types, controls, assessment procedures, and model activities, and providing a portfolio view dashboard for efficient management and visualization of accreditation workflows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual identification and planning of assessment procedures is performed for each control, then compliance with regulatory standards is ensured, but the accreditation process becomes time-consuming and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-identifying and storing assessment procedures and model activities associated with each control in a database before the accreditation process begins. When a control is selected, the corresponding assessment procedures are automatically retrieved and presented, eliminating the need for manual identification during the accreditation process while ensuring compliance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by automatically generating accreditation plans, scheduling model activities, and retrieving assessment procedures based on the selected controls and information types. The automated plan generation service reduces manual intervention while maintaining compliance through systematic retrieval of required assessment procedures from the database.
2Reliability
If a comprehensive set of controls (400-500 controls) is implemented for each application, then security and privacy requirements are adequately addressed, but the accreditation workload becomes excessive and repetitive
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the comprehensive set of 400-500 controls into manageable groups based on information types (e.g., PII, PHI, financial data). By segmenting controls according to the specific information types processed by the application, the system presents only the relevant subset of controls that apply to each application, reducing repetitive workload while maintaining security coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality by customizing the accreditation process according to the specific information types and controls relevant to each application. Instead of uniformly applying all 400-500 controls to every application, the system tailors the control set and assessment procedures to match the local requirements of each application's data processing activities.
3Measurement precision
If developers manually devise plans for implementing and verifying each control, then thorough assessment is achieved, but the time and effort required increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses copying by retrieving and reusing pre-defined assessment procedures and model activities from the database that have been previously developed and validated. Instead of creating new assessment plans from scratch for each control, the system copies existing standardized procedures and adapts them to the specific application context, maintaining assessment thoroughness while reducing plan development time.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for accreditation of software and accreditation workload management using meta models and portfolio view is disclosed. An embodiment comprises extracting raw data from a corpus of documents, published by a regulatory organization to define standards. Further, an embodiment processes the raw data to generate meta models based on information type mapping, control mapping, and assessment procedures mapping. The meta models may comprise a set of information type, a set of security controls, a set of assessment procedures, and a set of model activities. Embodiments provide an ability to manage accreditation workload with compliance process frameworks activities. An embodiment may extract and schedule model activities associated with controls of an application. Further an embodiment may maintain a data-maps database and generate and display a portfolio view to assist a developer to manage the accreditation workload.