Compliance Simplified LogoCompliance Simplified

Quick Start: Your First Compliance Project

Goal: Set up a basic compliance foundation in under 30 minutes.

This tutorial walks you through creating your first compliance project using our step-by-step approach. You'll learn by doing, not just reading.

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of your organization's structure
  • Access to your company's security policies (if any)
  • 30 minutes of focused time

What You'll Build

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have:

  • A compliance project scope document
  • A basic risk assessment framework
  • Your first security control implemented
  • A roadmap for next steps

Step 1: Define Your Scope (5 minutes)

Start by clearly defining what you're protecting:

# Project Scope Template

**Organization**: [Your Company Name]
**Scope**: [What systems/data are in scope?]
**Exclusions**: [What's explicitly out of scope?]
**Stakeholders**: [Who needs to be involved?]

Action: Fill out this template with your organization's details.

Step 2: Identify Your Assets (10 minutes)

List your critical information assets:

| Asset | Type | Owner | Criticality | | ---------------- | ------ | ------ | ----------- | | Customer data | Data | [Name] | High | | Source code | Data | [Name] | High | | Employee records | Data | [Name] | Medium | | Office network | System | [Name] | Medium |

Action: Create your own asset inventory table.

Step 3: Assess Basic Risks (10 minutes)

For each high-criticality asset, identify:

  • What could go wrong?
  • How likely is it?
  • What's the impact?

Example:

  • Risk: Customer data breach
  • Likelihood: Medium (we have basic security)
  • Impact: High (regulatory fines, reputation damage)
  • Risk Level: High

Action: Complete a risk assessment for your top 3 assets.

Step 4: Implement Your First Control (5 minutes)

Choose one high-priority risk and implement a basic control:

Example: For customer data protection

  • Control: Password policy
  • Implementation: Require 12+ character passwords
  • Documentation: Create a simple policy document

Action: Implement and document one control for your highest-risk item.

What You've Accomplished

✅ Defined your compliance scope
✅ Identified critical assets
✅ Completed basic risk assessment
✅ Implemented your first security control

Next Steps

Now that you have a foundation, choose your path:

Troubleshooting

"I don't know what assets we have"

  • Start with customer data, employee records, and source code
  • Ask your IT team or leadership for input

"Risk assessment seems overwhelming"

  • Focus on your top 3 most critical assets
  • Use simple High/Medium/Low ratings
  • You can refine this later

"I'm not sure about scope"

  • Start small - you can always expand later
  • Focus on customer-facing systems first
  • Document what you exclude and why