Introduction

This chapter focuses on one of the key management tools of the IAM, the technical assessment plan (TAP). In the previous chapters we went into great detail about what makes up the TAP, since it can be considered the core outcome of the pre-assessment site visit. The TAP is the primary deliverable created during the pre-assessment phase. The TAP combines all the information that has been created or discovered into an easily understood summary of the organization about to be assessed.

The TAP s purpose or goal is to be an integral part of the IAM. In fact, the TAP becomes the IAM guideline after completion of the pre-assessment site visit. Not only is the TAP a summary of the understood status of the target organization, it also discusses the major action items to be covered during the assessment process as well as any fundamental concerns or focal points the customer would like addressed. In this chapter we discuss the different aspects behind the TAP and some of the things we want it to accomplish.

We also lay out the TAP in a detailed format for discussion. Each portion of the plan covers different topics in different levels of detail, as we explore in this chapter. Some of the topics share concerns, such as ease of use and level of detail. Both of these are details to be determined between the customer and the assessing teams, as we ll see later. And of course we go over the topic-specific items and...