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Document metadata

Status
Review candidate
Approval
Pending
Version
1.0
Classification
PUBLIC
Owner
Lightning IT Documentation Maintainers
Approver
Lightning IT Product Owners
Audience
compliance owners, security reviewers, evidence owners, product owners, customers
Last reviewed
Next review
(Annual)

Compliance mapping model

This planning record defines a framework-neutral public mapping model. A mapping explains interpretation, applicability, status, and bounded supporting evidence; it does not establish conformity, certification, audit success, regulatory compliance, or control effectiveness.

Framework registry

The target registry supports:

  • BSI IT-Grundschutz, BSI Standards 200-2 and 200-4, and applicable IT-Grundschutz building blocks;

  • CIS Benchmarks;

  • OpenSSF Best Practices and OpenSSF Scorecard;

  • SLSA, SPDX, CycloneDX, in-toto, and Sigstore;

  • NIST Secure Software Development Framework; and

  • future public frameworks admitted through the same governance contract.

Each registry entry records stable ID, official name, publisher, public authority URL, framework type, edition/version, publication date, effective date, supersession state, license/publication constraints, owner, review cadence, and applicability-review trigger. Framework text is referenced rather than copied unless redistribution is explicitly permitted.

Adding a framework does not declare it applicable. A framework view is generated from canonical requirement and mapping records, not separately authored prose.

Record model

Requirement record

requirement_id: nist-ssdf-1.1-po-example
framework: nist-ssdf
framework_version: "1.1"
authority_reference: PO.example
title: Public-safe title or concise paraphrase
requirement_digest: sha256:...
owner: Compliance Owner
supersedes: []

Mapping record

mapping_id: map-example
mapping_version: "1.0"
requirement_id: nist-ssdf-1.1-po-example
scope:
organization: lightning-it
products: []
components: []
product_versions: []
applicability: applicable
applicability_rationale: Bounded public rationale
implementation_status: not-assessed
assurance_types:
- internal-alignment
implementation_statement: No implementation claim is made.
owner: Named accountable role
evidence: []
exceptions: []
limitations:
- Explicit limitation
assessed_at: "2026-07-25"
review_at: "2027-07-25"
source_revision: full-git-oid

Requirement identity is separate from a product mapping. One requirement can have many explicitly scoped mappings; one implementation/evidence relationship can support many mappings without copying the evidence.

Controlled values

Applicability

ValueMeaning
applicablerequirement applies to the exact recorded scope
conditionally-applicableapplies only when the stated condition is true
not-applicableaccountable owner determined it does not apply and recorded rationale
applicability-unknownapplicability has not been determined

not-applicable requires owner, public-safe rationale, decision date, approving/reviewing role, evidence where relevant, next review, and event triggers. It is never treated as implemented.

Implementation status

Required public labelControlled valueMeaning
Implementedimplementedbounded implementation statement has current supporting evidence
Partially Implementedpartially-implementedidentified portions have evidence and uncovered portions are explicit
Plannedplannedaccepted or proposed future work; no current implementation claim
Not Applicablenot-applicableapplicability decision above is valid; no implementation score
Not Assessednot-assessedno adequate assessment has established status

An unavailable, withheld, failed, expired, or revoked evidence record cannot support implemented without other sufficient current evidence. If evidence expires or scope changes, the mapping returns to not-assessed or partially-implemented until review.

Assurance and obligation types

These values are independent of implementation status:

TypePermitted statement
internal-alignmentinternal design is mapped to selected public requirements; no assessment implied
self-assessmentaccountable organization assessed the named scope and method
automated-validationnamed automated method produced a bounded result at a revision
independent-assessmentnamed independent qualified party assessed the exact scope and validity period
certificationauthorized certification body issued a public credential for exact scope and dates
regulatory-obligationnamed legal authority creates an obligation for the recorded entity/scope

Multiple types may relate to a mapping, but none upgrades another. Automated validation is not independent assessment; self-assessment is not certification; alignment is not conformity; a framework reference is not a regulatory obligation.

Certification or independent-assessment claims require issuer, credential or report identifier, exact subject and scope, standard/version, issue and expiry dates, public verification source, status, and limitations. Regulatory claims require a qualified accountable owner and authoritative legal source. Private legal analysis remains private.

Evidence normalization and reuse

Evidence stays canonical in the Evidence Center. A relationship record links:

evidence record version
-> implementation/control statement
-> one or more scoped mappings
-> one or more framework requirements

The edge records relation type (supports, verifies, limits, contradicts, or supersedes), scope overlap, mapping owner, and review date. Views join these records by ID. They do not duplicate evidence summaries or silently broaden product/version coverage.

One test may support several requirements only when the mapping owner explains how its method and acceptance rule address each requirement. Evidence of a process definition does not prove process execution; a tool configuration does not prove a successful run; a passing run does not prove control effectiveness outside its sample and time.

Implementation statement invariant

implemented or partially-implemented requires:

  1. an unambiguous public implementation statement;
  2. accountable owner and exact product/component/version scope;
  3. applicable requirement and framework version;
  4. current Evidence Center records whose subject, method, result, and scope support that statement;
  5. known gaps, exceptions, unavailable evidence, and limitations;
  6. assessment and next-review dates; and
  7. authorized exact-digest approval for the mapping set.

Without all elements, use planned or not-assessed. Generated summaries must not translate unknown, excluded, not-applicable, or missing mappings into a percentage suggesting compliance.

Exceptions

An exception is separate from a mapping status and contains stable ID, exact scope, affected requirements, public-safe rationale, risk owner, approving authority, compensating measures and evidence, effective and expiry dates, review triggers, private-system reference where safe, and remediation link.

Public records exclude private risk ratings, threat scenarios, customer controls, finding details, accepted-risk reasoning, audit work papers, vulnerabilities, incident information, and restricted compensating-control details. When no safe rationale exists, publish only withheld or not-assessed with a useful limitation.

An exception never changes the framework requirement, asserts implementation, or waives classification and approval boundaries.

Framework and applicability change

The Compliance Owner monitors publisher versions and authoritative notices. A new edition:

  1. creates immutable new requirement records;
  2. records added, changed, renumbered, split, merged, and removed requirements;
  3. maps old-to-new identity explicitly;
  4. marks prior mappings historical, never silently current;
  5. triggers applicability and evidence review for affected scopes; and
  6. publishes a new mapping-set version only after validation and approval.

Product scope, architecture, supported-version, evidence, owner, obligation, certification, or public-authority changes also trigger review.

Views and claim-safe presentation

Each framework page shows publisher/version, authority link, assessed scope, mapping-set version/digest, assurance types, last/next review, owner, limitations, and rows for requirement, applicability, implementation status, evidence, and exceptions.

Filters and aggregate summaries show complete denominators and separate all controlled statuses. not-applicable and not-assessed are never successes. Historical, superseded, expired, and planned data is visibly separated from the current view. No badge uses certification language unless supported by a valid external credential.

Validation

Machine validation checks:

  • registry IDs, framework versions, authority URLs, requirement digests, and supersession graphs;
  • controlled applicability, status, assurance, and relationship values;
  • owner, rationale, scope, dates, review triggers, and exception expiry;
  • evidence existence/version/status, bidirectional edges, and scope overlap;
  • implemented-state evidence invariant and stale evidence downgrade;
  • framework coverage reports without interpreting missing records as success;
  • deterministic generation from canonical records and exact mapping-set digest;
  • restricted-content/unsafe-claim scanning; and
  • accessible tables, status text, filters, routes, links, search, locale, and version behavior.

Current and target state

The current BSI mapping is a useful public page, not proof of a complete framework-neutral mapping system. It remains canonical during transition.

Issue #38 must approve registry/schema locations, framework-version support, assurance authority, applicability approval, exception publication, mapping-set digest rules, and migration of the existing BSI page. Adoption then requires per-framework review; no record receives an implemented or assurance state by bulk default.