Free tool · Where-to-start worksheet

Where to start, and how to actually finish it

You ran the assessment and saw where things are drifting. This turns that into one first move small enough to finish, with a name and a date on it. That is the whole job.

From The Modern Identity Operating Model by Becky Sandberg.

Becky Sandberg

The Modern Identity Operating Model

Nothing you write here is sent or stored. This worksheet runs entirely in your browser, and there is no email step on this page. What you fill in stays on your device, and you keep it through the print button at the end.

How to use this. This is step two, after the predictability assessment. It turns your result into one first move with an owner and a date. The gap map is a separate, compliance-focused tool for mapping gaps to the regulations you answer to.

Step 1 Confirm where to start

Start with the pillar that felt weakest when you ran the assessment. If two or three were close, weigh them below and let risk, urgency, and readiness break the tie.

The pillar I am starting with

If two or three were close, weigh them

Rate each close pillar on three things. Risk: if this stays as it is, how much harm could it cause. Urgency: is an audit, incident, deadline, or change forcing it soon. Readiness: do you have enough ownership, data, and support to make real progress right now. Start where risk and urgency are high and you have at least some readiness. Be careful starting where the need is high but readiness is low, because that is where good intentions stall.

PillarRiskUrgencyReadiness

Step 2 Pick one first move

Small enough to finish. These come straight from where each pillar says to begin. Choose one and resist the urge to take on all of them.

Choose a pillar in step one to see its first moves.

Step 3 Make it finishable

Write it so a busy team can actually close it. Write it as one specific thing, for a specific scope, with a real date and a single owner.

Example: We will document ownership for three entitlements in Finance by August 15.

We will for by The one person accountable How you will know it is done The smallest version that still counts as progress The one step you can take this week

Drift is normal, and you do not need clean foundations to begin. One move you carry all the way to done will help you more than several left half open. When this one is done, run the assessment again and pick the next.

When you want the full picture. The gap map turns your gaps into a sequenced register mapped to the frameworks and regulations you answer to.

Open the gap map →

The Modern Identity Operating Model · A single operating model for governing every identity