Adopt and manage a standard at a site

Use the Standards area to adopt a compliance programme for your site, configure its requirements, link operational evidence, and monitor ongoing compliance. The workflow moves through the library, adoption wizard, requirement setup, and activation, then continues with compliance tracking on the site dashboards.

Before you start

You need the Manager or Admin role for the Standards module at the site where you want to adopt the standard.

Step 1: Browse the library and adopt the standard

1. Open the Standards Library for your site.

2. Find the standard you want to adopt and select it.

3. Click Adopt at This Site to open the adoption wizard.

4. Confirm the version, answer the adoption parameters, choose a grading mode, and review your choices.

5. Click Adopt Standard. The standard is created on your site in the Adopting status.

For the full adoption wizard walkthrough, see Adopt a Standard at This Site.

Step 2: Configure requirements and assign roles

While the standard is in Adopting status, open the standard detail page and configure each requirement so it shows as ready.

1. Review the requirement tree. Requirements that are not yet configured show as Not Started or In Progress.

2. Assign accountability roles such as Owner or Supplier to each requirement. The requirement tree warns you when a required role is missing.

3. Confirm that each in-scope requirement is marked Ready before you proceed.

For detailed steps on configuring requirements and roles, see Configure Standard Requirements and Roles and Owners in Standards.

Step 3: Link evidence and set up review or attestation

Each requirement that needs proof of compliance must have its evidence slots linked to operational records or uploaded files.

1. On the requirement detail page, open the Evidence section and click Add Evidence.

2. Choose the evidence type: documents, distributions, risk assessments, work schedules, files, or manual confirmations.

3. Complete the form and submit to create the link.

4. If the requirement needs periodic review, set up attestation or map a review policy so the system can track whether the review is up to date.

For detailed evidence linking steps, see Link Evidence to a Standard. For attestation and review policy setup, see Reviews and Attestation in Standards.

Step 4: Activate the standard and monitor compliance

When every in-scope requirement is ready, activate the standard so it moves to Active status and begins tracking live compliance.

1. On the standard detail page, activate the standard. Once activated, the status changes to Active and the compliance health labels begin to update.

2. Open the Our Standards page to see the summary strip: Adopted Standards, Compliant Requirements, and Obligation Gaps.

3. Drill into an active standard to see the compliance ring and requirement-level statuses: Compliant, Non-compliant, or Remediating.

4. Review the Linked Evidence page to check shared records that need attention across multiple requirements.

For the dashboard and monitoring details, see Standards Dashboards and Site Home. For how compliance scoring works, see Understanding Compliance in Standards.

Upgrade to a newer version

When a newer published version of an adopted standard becomes available, you can move the site to the new version through the upgrade wizard. The wizard copies matching configuration forward, shows you what will change, and lets you decide whether to archive the previous adoption. For the full walkthrough, see Upgrade a site to a newer standard version.

Common questions