PBA Readiness Checklist

Principles-Based Assurance (PBA)

This checklist helps organisations understand what is typically expected before undertaking a PBA-style assessment.

Governance

• Security ownership clearly defined across teams

• Executive oversight established for security maturity

• Risk management process documented and actively used

• Clear linkage between policy, risk, and operational controls

Secure Development

• Secure coding standards defined and implemented

• Mandatory code review process in place

• Threat modelling integrated into development lifecycle

• Developer security training regularly delivered and tracked

• Evidence of secure development practices applied in real projects

Operational Security

• Monitoring and alerting capabilities defined

• Incident response process documented and tested

• Access control policies implemented and enforced

• Operational processes consistently applied across environments

Vulnerability Management

• Defined remediation SLAs based on risk level

• Centralised vulnerability tracking system

• Clear ownership of remediation activities

• Penetration testing process established and repeated

• Formal risk acceptance and exception handling procedures

Evidence & Assurance

• Evidence is:

  • repeatable

  • traceable

  • version controlled

• Clear linkage between:

  • policies → processes → execution → outputs

• Evidence reflects real operational practices (not retrospective preparation)

Customer Assurance

• Ability to respond to security questionnaires with evidence

• Clear articulation of product security posture

• Structured documentation of controls and implementation

✅ Outcome

You should be able to demonstrate:

👉 How security works in practice — supported by evidence, not just policy