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System Inheritance

The System Inheritance feature provides a flexible way to manage compliance across related systems. Instead of duplicating work, you can selectively inherit control statuses and implementation statements between systems, while still retaining each system's original state.

Key Principles​

  • Parent and Child Systems – Any system can be designated as a parent or a child.
  • Flagging Discrepancies – When a child system is linked to a parent, any differences in frameworks are flagged on the Systems page.
  • Granular Control – Inheritance is not automatic. Instead, users can decide at the control level or objective level whether to inherit.
  • Read-Only Inherited Data – Once a control or objective is inherited, its status (and implementation statement, if applicable) cannot be modified in the child system.

How Inheritance Works​

  1. On the Control Details page, inheritance checkboxes appear at both the control and objective level.

  2. Checking a box enables inheritance:

    • In the Parent System, checking inheritance means the status (and implementation statement, if at the control level) will flow down to its children.
    • In the Child System, checking inheritance means the status will be pulled from its parent.

  3. Once inherited:

    • The status for that control or objective becomes read-only.
    • A tooltip is displayed, explaining that the status is inherited.
    • The Implementation Statement section will show the parent statement.

  4. Unchecking the box disables inheritance, allowing the child system to manage the control independently again.