EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · SA - System and Services Acquisition

SA-15(6) Development Process, Standards, and Tools | Continuous Improvement

Require the developer of the system, system component, or system service to implement an explicit process to continuously improve the development process.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, SA-15(6). 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.

9
artefacts
1
held by a system
1
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

  • Quality goals and metrics for improving the system development process · Policy repository / GRC workspace

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Security assessments · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • System and services acquisition policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System and services acquisition procedures · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing development process, standards, and tools · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Solicitation documentation · Document repository
  • Acquisition documentation · Document repository
  • Service level agreements · Vendor register / contract repository
  • Acquisition contracts for the system, system component, or system service · Vendor register / contract repository

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Policy repository / GRC workspace on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

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-15(5) Development Process, Standards, and Tools | Attack Surface Reduction · SA-15(7) Development Process, Standards, and Tools | Automated Vulnerability Analysis