Intent
Translate policy into repeatable checks and automated remediation with clear evidence.
When to use
- Policy compliance must be enforced at scale.
- Manual checks are slow or error-prone.
- You need evidence of compliance outcomes.
- Exceptions must be tracked deliberately.
Core mechanics
- Define policy and expected state clearly.
- Measure current state and detect drift.
- Remediate automatically or flag exceptions.
- Record evidence for audits.
Implementation checklist
- Document policy rules and acceptable exceptions.
- Collect current state with reliable sources.
- Compute drift and categorize issues.
- Apply remediation with dry-run options.
- Capture evidence and reports for audit.
- Review exceptions regularly.
Failure modes and mitigations
- False positives -> adjust rules or add allowlists.
- Over-remediation -> add approval or dry-run gates.
- Unhandled edge cases -> document and track exceptions.
- Missing evidence -> add audit output by default.
Observability and validation
- Compliance rate over time.
- Exception counts and categories.
- Remediation success rate.
- Audit report locations.
Artifacts
- Policy definitions.
- Compliance reports and evidence.
- Exception logs.