DocsFeaturesBuilding Policies & Standards

Building Policies & Standards

Combine governance statements into publishable policy documents, standards, and procedures. Manage versions, approvals, and PDF export with assemblies.

What Is an Assembly?

An assembly is a governance document composed of individual statements. Think of it as a container that organizes related requirements into the policy format your stakeholders expect.

Common assembly types:

  • Information Security Policy: Your organization's security requirements
  • Data Protection Standard: Technical requirements for handling personal data
  • Incident Response Procedure: Step-by-step actions for security incidents
  • Acceptable Use Policy: Rules for using organizational resources

Assembly Templates

Dictiva provides pre-built assembly templates for common governance documents. Templates are curated by domain experts and contain 5-8 statements appropriate for your maturity level.

During onboarding, you choose a template based on:

  • Domain: Data Governance, AI Governance, Information Security, Privacy, or Data Management
  • Maturity Level: Crawl (foundational), Walk (intermediate), or Run (advanced)

Templates are starting points, not constraints. After adopting a template, you can add, remove, or reorder statements to match your organization.

Policies and Their Standards

A standard can name a parent policy. On the workspace home page, standards are grouped under the policy they support, so readers see a policy and its supporting standards together instead of a flat list. Standards without a parent are listed on their own under Your standards. Every document can also carry a document icon, chosen from the icon picker on its card, to make it easier to recognize at a glance.

Creating an Assembly

From a Template (Recommended)

The fastest path is through the onboarding wizard, which adopts a template and creates your first assembly automatically. You can also adopt templates from the Library page.

From Scratch

  1. Click New policy on the workspace home page, or open the Policies menu and choose Policies & Standards
  2. Click New Assembly
  3. Enter the assembly details:
    • Name: e.g., "Information Security Policy"
    • Type: Policy, Standard, Procedure, or Guideline
    • Description: A brief summary of the assembly's purpose

Adding Statements

Once your assembly is created, add statements to it:

From Your Library

  1. Click Add Statements in the assembly editor
  2. Browse or search your statement library
  3. Select one or more statements
  4. Click Add to Assembly

Organize into Sections

Group related statements under section headings for readability:

  1. Click Add Section to create a heading
  2. Drag statements into the appropriate section
  3. Reorder sections and statements as needed

A typical policy assembly might have sections like:

  • Purpose & Scope
  • Access Control
  • Data Protection
  • Incident Management
  • Compliance & Monitoring

Assembly States

Assemblies move through a lifecycle:

StateDescription
DraftWork in progress (editable by editors)
In ReviewShared with reviewers for feedback
PublishedLocked and official (read-only)
ArchivedNo longer active but preserved for records

Publishing

When you publish an assembly, Dictiva:

  1. Creates a publication manifest: a snapshot of exactly which statements (and their versions) are included
  2. Locks the content: published assemblies can't be edited
  3. Makes it available for acknowledgment

This ensures that the published version is immutable. If you need to make changes, create a new version.

Versioning

Each publish creates a new version. You can compare versions to see what changed between publications. Previous versions are preserved indefinitely for audit purposes.

Acknowledgments

After publishing, you can send acknowledgment requests (requires the Acknowledgements module):

  1. Open the published assembly
  2. Click Request Acknowledgment
  3. Select recipients (individual users, roles, or the entire organization)
  4. Set a deadline
  5. Send

Recipients receive an email with a link to review and acknowledge the assembly. You can track acknowledgment status in real time:

  • Pending: Request sent, not yet acknowledged
  • Acknowledged: Recipient has reviewed and acknowledged
  • Overdue: Deadline passed without acknowledgment

PDF Export

Published assemblies can be exported as professional PDF documents:

  1. Open the published assembly
  2. Click Export PDF
  3. The PDF includes:
    • Cover page with assembly metadata
    • Table of contents
    • All statements organized by section
    • Publication date and version number
    • Watermark for draft assemblies

Best Practices

  1. Keep assemblies focused. A policy document with 100+ statements is hard to read and maintain. Break large governance areas into multiple, focused assemblies.

  2. Use the right type. Policies define what must happen. Standards define how. Procedures define step-by-step. Using the right type sets correct expectations for readers.

  3. Publish regularly. Don't let assemblies sit in draft for months. Publish early, update often. Version tracking preserves the history.

  4. Track acknowledgments. An unacknowledged policy is an unenforceable policy. Use acknowledgment workflows to ensure stakeholders are aware of their obligations.

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