What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on SA-3 System Development Life Cycle?

SSP SA-3 statement describing the SDLC used and where security and privacy activities occur in it; SDLC documentation showing security gates and sample release approvals; Vendor security questionnaires and SOC reports retained; Software bill of materials for in scope products; Acquisition policy with security clauses for contracts; Secure software development lifecycle procedures.

What is the most common gap auditors find on SA-3?

Threat modelling performed inconsistently across product teams

FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) · SA - System and Services Acquisition

`SA-3` System Development Life Cycle

Manage system using SDLC incorporating security/privacy considerations.

Source: FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline), SA-3. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) in the compliance library.

A FedRAMP baseline is a subset of NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, enhancements included.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Vendor security questionnaires and SOC reports retained · Vendor register / contract repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

SSP SA-3 statement describing the SDLC used and where security and privacy activities occur in it · Policy repository / GRC workspace
SDLC documentation showing security gates and sample release approvals · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Software bill of materials for in scope products · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Acquisition policy with security clauses for contracts · Vendor register / contract repository
Secure software development lifecycle procedures · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Threat modelling performed inconsistently across product teams
Open source components used without SBOM or licence review
Vendor SOC reports collected but exceptions not analysed

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

SA-2 Allocation of Resources · SA-4 Acquisition Process