Continuous Monitoring

Continuous Monitoring

Design a continuous compliance monitoring program for "$ARGUMENTS" with automated checks, dashboard metrics, alerting thresholds, and GRC tooling integration.

Prerequisites

Read .metapowers/compliance/$ARGUMENTS/00-scope.md. If this file does not exist, tell the user:

Phase 0 (Scope) has not been completed for "$ARGUMENTS". Run /compliance:regulatory-landscape $ARGUMENTS first, or use --skip-checks to bypass.

If --skip-checks is present in $ARGUMENTS, skip this check.

Process

1. Read context files:

   • Read plugins/compliance/shared/grc-lifecycle-guide.md for GRC methodology reference
   • Read .metapowers/compliance/$ARGUMENTS/00-scope.md for scope and applicable regulations
   • Read .metapowers/compliance/$ARGUMENTS/02-remediate.md for control mapping and evidence plan
   • Read .metapowers/compliance/$ARGUMENTS/03-certify.md for certification status

2. Define monitoring scope:

   • For each regulation: identify checks that can be automated vs. manual
   • Automated checks: configuration scanning, access reviews, vulnerability scanning, policy acknowledgments, training completion tracking, encryption verification
   • Manual checks: policy reviews, risk assessments, vendor assessments, physical security inspections
   • Define check frequency — continuous, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly

3. Design automated compliance checks:

   • Configuration scanning — infrastructure-as-code compliance, cloud security posture
   • Access reviews — periodic user access certification, privileged access monitoring
   • Policy acknowledgments — employee policy acceptance tracking
   • Training completion — security awareness, role-specific training
   • Vulnerability management — scan frequency, remediation SLAs
   • Change management — deployment tracking, approval verification

4. Dashboard metrics:

   • Compliance score per regulation (percentage of controls passing)
   • Open findings count and aging
   • Days to remediate (average, P95)
   • Evidence freshness — percentage of evidence current vs. stale
   • Control effectiveness rate — percentage of controls operating as designed
   • Trend lines — compliance posture over time

5. Alerting and escalation:

   • Define alerting thresholds (e.g., compliance score drops below 90%)
   • Set escalation paths — who gets notified at each severity level
   • Define response SLAs for compliance alerts
   • Integration with incident management (PagerDuty, Slack, email)

6. GRC tooling integration:

   • Assess current GRC tooling (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, or manual)
   • Map monitoring requirements to tool capabilities
   • Identify gaps requiring custom integration or manual processes
   • Recommend tooling improvements if applicable

7. Write the artifact to .metapowers/compliance/$ARGUMENTS/04-monitor.md with sections:

   • Monitoring Scope — automated vs. manual checks per regulation
   • Automated Checks — check descriptions, frequency, tools
   • Dashboard Design — metrics, visualizations, and data sources
   • Alerting Framework — thresholds, escalation paths, SLAs
   • GRC Tooling — current state and integration plan
   • Operational Cadence — daily/weekly/monthly compliance activities

Output

The continuous monitoring design written to .metapowers/compliance/$ARGUMENTS/04-monitor.md. Present a summary to the user highlighting:

• Percentage of controls with automated monitoring
• Key dashboard metrics recommended
• Critical alerting thresholds
• GRC tooling recommendations