• ADR: 0008
  • Proposal Author(s): @eddie-knight, @jpower432
  • Status: Accepted

Context

While we marked the model as stable in pre-v1 releases, it has been understood that it is still open to modification. This has resulted in occasional suggestions for minor or even breaking changes to improve the clarity and accuracy of the model as it seeks to categoricallly describe aspects of GRC.

Decision

We will publish a whitepaper through the OpenSSF which includes a description of all layers and essential definitions. It must be rigorously peer reviewed prior to publication.

We will also publish the core whitepaper contents on the official project website, and contribute definitions to the OpenSSF Glossary.

Consequences

  • Increased confidence from adopters, as the concepts will all be effectively immutable
  • We’ll need to make a concerted push to solicit feedback
  • A large simultaneous change set will be necessary to apply feedback prior to publication
  • This will remove our “Lexicon” living document entirely, though we may create a similar page on the site referencing the Whitepaper and OpenSSF Glossary

Alternatives Considered

We could attempt to publish this through an official standardization body. That is not ruled out, but it will not be our first course of action.