Where to Start
Security Leader
CISO, VP Security, Security Director
You're accountable for access risk, but you can't see it clearly.
The pain you're feeling
- Audit requests expose gaps you didn't know existed
- "Who has access to what" is a multi-week project
- You know authorization is fragmented, but it's hard to prioritize against everything else
Your first 30 days
1
Expose the fragmentation
Ask your teams: "Where does authorization logic live for our top 10 critical applications?" Document the answers—the inconsistency will be revealing.
2
Use compliance as a lens
Pick one upcoming audit or compliance review. Use it to evaluate your current authorization visibility.
3
Identify a pilot candidate
Find one business-critical app with known access control pain. This is your potential proof of concept.
4
Build shared vocabulary
Socialize the maturity model with your architects. Get everyone speaking the same language.
Questions to ask internally
- Can we explain *why* any given user has access to a specific resource?
- How long would it take to answer an auditor's access question with confidence?
- How many different systems or teams own access decisions today?
Traps to avoid
- Trying to boil the ocean—start with one domain, not the whole enterprise
- Assuming your IdP solves this—it handles authentication, not fine-grained authorization
- Waiting for a breach or audit finding to prioritize this
When to go deeper
When you've identified a pilot candidate and need to evaluate approaches (build, OPA, platform), or when you need help building the internal business case.