What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on PL-11 Baseline Tailoring?

Security and privacy planning policy; Procedures addressing system security and privacy plan development and implementation; System design documentation; System categorization decision; Information types stored, transmitted, and processed by the system; System element/component information.

What is the most common gap auditors find on PL-11?

Tailoring actions applied to the selected baseline are not documented with rationale in the security and privacy plan

NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · PL - Planning

`PL-11` Baseline Tailoring

Tailor the selected control baseline by applying specified tailoring actions.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, PL-11. 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 NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 in the compliance library.

Base controls and their enhancements. Which apply follows the baseline you are assessed against (for example FedRAMP Moderate or High, or the low, moderate and high baselines of SP 800-53B). Text in square brackets is a parameter your organisation sets.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Document repository

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

System categorization decision · Document repository
Stakeholder needs analysis · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Security and privacy planning policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Procedures addressing system security and privacy plan development and implementation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System design documentation · Document repository
Information types stored, transmitted, and processed by the system · Document repository
System element/component information · Document repository
List of security and privacy requirements allocated to the system, system elements, and environment of operation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
List of contractual requirements allocated to external providers of the system or system element · Document repository

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

Tailoring actions applied to the selected baseline are not documented with rationale in the security and privacy plan
Controls were removed from the baseline as not applicable without a documented tailoring decision or approval

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

PL-10 Baseline Selection · PM-1 Information Security Program Plan