Active

Continuous Improvement

The organization shall establish a continuous improvement process for third-party lifecycle and offboarding management, driving ongoing enhancement of lifecycle management effectiveness. The process shall include mechanisms for identifying improvement opportunities, implementing changes, and measuring results, drawing inputs from offboarding reviews, incident experience, and best practice benchmarking.

Requirement ID
TPR-005-R010
Parent Control
Domain Code

Requirement Details & Guidance

TPR-005-R010 · TPR-005
Why This Requirement Exists

This requirement exists to manage third-party relationships from onboarding through change, renewal, termination, data return, data destruction, access revocation, verification, and continuous improvement, specifically addressing continuous improvement, so that third-party risks remain identified, controlled, and aligned with organizational risk appetite.

Implementation Guidance

Establish and document the process for continuous improvement. Define accountable owners, required inputs and outputs, assessment or approval criteria, review frequency, monitoring, reporting, exception handling, evidence requirements, and escalation paths. Apply the process consistently across relevant third parties based on criticality, data sensitivity, service dependency, and risk.

Practical Application & Audit Readiness

TPR-005-R010 · Field Guidance

Business Examples

    Common Audit Findings

      Common Mistakes

        Best Practices & Ownership

        TPR-005 · Recommended Approach

        Recommended Practices

          Typical Owner

          Cross-Mapped Regulatory Frameworks

          Harmonized Control Mappings
          FRAMEWORK CODE FRAMEWORK NAME & DETAILS FAMILY / CATEGORY VERSION ACTION
          ISO27001 ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27001 specifies auditable requirements for... Clause: 10.1 – Continual improvement
          ISO
          Standard
          v2022 View →
          RBI-CSF RBI Cyber Security Framework / Master Directions RBI cyber-security requirements and directions set... Clause: 11) Vendor Risk Management – 11.3 Due diligence, oversight and management of third-party vendors/service providers/partners; 11) Vendor Risk Management – 11.4 Framework to assess, approve, review, control and monitor vendor/outsourcing risks and materiality
          India
          Regulation
          vLatest View →
          SEBI-CSCRF SEBI Cyber Security & Cyber Resilience Framework SEBI’s Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framewor... Clause: 1.6 GV.SC: Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management
          India
          Regulation
          vLatest View →
          DORA Digital Operational Resilience Act The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act establis... Clause: Article 30(2)(e) – Assistance from ICT third-party provider in ICT incidents Article 30(2)(f) – Cooperation with competent/resolution authorities Article 30(2)(j) – Access, inspection and audit rights
          EU
          Regulation
          vCurrent View →
          NIS2 NIS2 Directive The NIS2 Directive establishes EU-wide cybersecuri... Clause: Article 21(2)(d) – Supply chain security, including relationships with direct suppliers/service providers
          EU
          Directive
          vCurrent View →
          PCI-DSS PCI DSS PCI DSS is an industry security standard maintaine... Clause: 12.8.1 – A list of all third-party service providers; 12.8.2 – Written agreements with TPSPs are
          PCI
          Standard
          v4 View →
          NIST-CSF NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) The NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides high-lev... Clause: GV.SC – Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management | GV.SC-01 – A cybersecurity supply chain risk management program, strategy, objectives, policies, and processes are established and agreed to by organizational stakeholders GV.SC – Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management | GV.SC-07 – The risks posed by a supplier, their products and services, and other third parties are understood, recorded, prioritized, assessed, responded to, and monitored over the course of the relationship
          NIST
          Framework
          v2 View →
          NIST80053 NIST SP 800-53 NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 presents control families, i... Clause: 3.20 – SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT; SR-6 – SUPPLIER ASSESSMENTS AND REVIEWS
          NIST
          Control Catalog
          vRev. 5 View →
          SOC2 SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria SOC 2 is an independent examination and reporting... Clause: CC9.2 – Risk Mitigation – The entity assesses and manages risks associated with vendors and business partners. CC6.3 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity authorizes, modifies, or removes access to data, software, functions, and other protected information assets based on roles, responsibilities, or the system design and changes, giving consideration to the concepts of least privilege and segregation of duties, to meet the entity’s objectives. CC6.5 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity discontinues logical and physical protections over physical assets only after the ability to read or recover data and software from those assets has been diminished and is no longer required to meet the entity’s objectives. CC4.1 – Monitoring of Controls – COSO Principle 16: The entity selects, develops, and performs ongoing and/or separate evaluations to ascertain whether the components of internal control are present and functioning. CC4.2 – Monitoring of Controls – COSO Principle 17: The entity evaluates and communicates internal control deficiencies in a timely manner to those parties responsible for taking corrective action, including senior management and the board of directors, as appropriate.
          AICPA
          Audit Framework
          vLatest View →

          Parent Domain Context

          Governance Domain Baseline
          Domain Name:
          Third-Party & Supply Chain Security (TPR)
          Purpose:
          To manage the security and privacy risks associated with third-party vendors and partners.
          Scope:
          Enterprise

          Parent Control Context

          Control Baseline
          Control Name:
          Third-Party Lifecycle & Offboarding Management (TPR-005)
          Summary:
          Establishes third-party lifecycle management including onboarding, relationship management, change management, contract renewal, vendor termination, data return, data destruction, access revocation, offboarding verification, and continuous improvement.
          Business Description:
          Establish and maintain controlled onboarding, change management, contract renewal, transition, termination, data return, data destruction, access revocation, and vendor offboarding processes.