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Continuous Improvement

What is Continuous Improvement?

An ongoing effort to improve products, services, and processes incrementally over time through small, sustainable changes.

Governance

Each of these is named in at least one of the same controls as continuous improvement. The number is how many controls name both.

What the standards actually require on continuous improvement

Requirements naming continuous improvement across 6 standards, quoted from the control text.

Use a quality system that enables and drives continuous improvement of service delivery.

ACQS25-2.5 · Quality system driving continuous improvement

Maintain a Plan for Continuous Improvement that identifies areas for improvement and tracks actions.

ACQS-CONT-IMPROV · Continuous Improvement Plan

NSS-17 + NSS-42-G require ongoing assurance + regulator interface + reporting + continuous improvement. Assurance activities: internal cyber security audit + management review + control effectiveness testing + penetration testing + red team exercises + ISO 270...

IAEA-NSS17-Assurance-Regulator-Inspection-Reporting-Improvement · IAEA NSS-17 - Assurance Activities + Regulator Interface + Inspection + Reporting + Information Sharing + Continuous Improvement

Data quality improvement lifecycle: define, measure, analyse, improve, control (DMAIC). Corrective and preventive actions. Quality management reviews. Integration with business processes.

ISO8000-MDG-03 · Continuous Improvement

The FSA Cybersecurity Maturity Self-Assessment Tool (Saiba Sekyuritii Jiko Hyouka Tool サイバーセキュリティ自己評価ツール) is the centrepiece annual assessment requirement for Japanese financial institutions + first introduced 2017 + significantly enhanced 2022 + sector-specif...

JP-FSA-CYB-Cybersecurity-Maturity-Self-Assessment-Tool-Annual-Submission-Risk-Tier-Based-Tier1-Tier2-Tier3 · Japan FSA Cybersecurity Maturity Self-Assessment Tool + Annual Submission + Risk-Tier-Based + Tier 1 Foundational + Tier 2 Enhanced + Tier 3 Advanced + FSA Inspection + Plan-Do-Check-Act + Continuous Improvement + Industry Benchmarking

Establish a continuous improvement mechanism that captures lessons learned from incidents, exercises, audits and industry threat intelligence and translates them into updates of the security programme, risk assessments and facility measures.

TSA-PSG-18 · Continuous improvement and lessons learned

Questions people ask about continuous improvement

What is Continuous Improvement?
An ongoing effort to improve products, services, and processes incrementally over time through small, sustainable changes.
Why is Continuous Improvement important for compliance?
Continuous Improvement is a key concept in Governance. Understanding continuous improvement helps organizations meet regulatory requirements, reduce risk, and demonstrate due diligence during audits. Our compliance platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings.
Which compliance frameworks address Continuous Improvement?
Continuous Improvement appears in the requirement text of Aged Care Quality Standards (Australia), Aged Care Quality Standards 2019 (repealed edition), IAEA Nuclear Security Series - Computer Security at Nuclear Facilities (NSS-17-T Rev 1), ISO 8000 - Data Quality, Japan FSA Cybersecurity Guidelines for Financial Institutions. Across these standards we have identified 16 controls that name it directly, each linked to the control text on the compliance platform.
Where can I learn more about Continuous Improvement?
Explore our compliance framework pages to see how continuous improvement applies across different standards and regulations. Our implementation guides provide step-by-step guidance, and the compliance platform offers AI-powered analysis of how this concept maps across 686 frameworks.

See how Continuous Improvement applies across compliance frameworks

Our platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings. Explore how this concept is addressed across standards.

Written and maintained by Gerard Blokdyk, The Art of Service.