PM-14 — Testing, Training, and Monitoring

Official NIST control content

Control statement

a.Implement a process for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems:
1. 1.Are developed and maintained; and
2. 2.Continue to be executed; and
b.Review testing, training, and monitoring plans for consistency with the organizational risk management strategy and organization-wide priorities for risk response actions.

Official NIST discussion

Discussion

A process for organization-wide security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring helps ensure that organizations provide oversight for testing, training, and monitoring activities and that those activities are coordinated. With the growing importance of continuous monitoring programs, the implementation of information security and privacy across the three levels of the risk management hierarchy and the widespread use of common controls, organizations coordinate and consolidate the testing and monitoring activities that are routinely conducted as part of ongoing assessments supporting a variety of controls. Security and privacy training activities, while focused on individual systems and specific roles, require coordination across all organizational elements. Testing, training, and monitoring plans and activities are informed by current threat and vulnerability assessments.

Original Bare Metal Cyber perspective

From control text to operational evidence

Use Testing, Training, and Monitoring as a testable risk decision. Translate the official statement into accountable people, repeatable processes, configured technology, and evidence that demonstrates the outcome over time. In this family, pay particular attention to enterprise program governance, accountability, resources, metrics, and organization-wide risk decisions.

Implementation workflow

Define the control boundary, responsible owner, inherited portions, and systems or processes in scope.
Resolve each organization-defined parameter before declaring the control implemented.
Document how the implementation satisfies every clause of the official control statement.
Collect evidence as a normal byproduct of operation rather than only before an assessment.
Review exceptions, changes, and monitoring results on a risk-based cadence.

Evidence examples

program charters and policies
governance meeting records
risk and performance metrics
resource and responsibility assignments

Common failure patterns

program metrics count activity instead of outcomes
system-level risks never reach enterprise governance
responsibilities assigned without authority or resources
privacy and security managed in separate silos

Questions practitioners should ask

What risk decision is this control intended to support in this system?
Which parts are implemented locally, inherited, shared, or not applicable—and what evidence supports that decision?
Do the documented narrative, deployed configuration, operating process, and collected evidence agree?
What event or threshold requires the implementation to be reviewed or changed?

Official NIST SP 800-53A content

Assessment objectives and methods

Show the assessment objective

PM-14a.
1. PM-14a.01
  1. PM-14a.01[01]a process is implemented for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting security testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems are developed;
  2. PM-14a.01[02]a process is implemented for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting security testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems are maintained;
  3. PM-14a.01[03]a process is implemented for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems are developed;
  4. PM-14a.01[04]a process is implemented for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems are maintained;
2. PM-14a.02
  1. PM-14a.02[01]a process is implemented for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting security testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems continue to be executed;
  2. PM-14a.02[02]a process is implemented for ensuring that organizational plans for conducting privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities associated with organizational systems continue to be executed;
PM-14b.
1. PM-14b.[01]testing plans are reviewed for consistency with the organizational risk management strategy;
2. PM-14b.[02]training plans are reviewed for consistency with the organizational risk management strategy;
3. PM-14b.[03]monitoring plans are reviewed for consistency with the organizational risk management strategy;
4. PM-14b.[04]testing plans are reviewed for consistency with organization-wide priorities for risk response actions;
5. PM-14b.[05]training plans are reviewed for consistency with organization-wide priorities for risk response actions;
6. PM-14b.[06]monitoring plans are reviewed for consistency with organization-wide priorities for risk response actions.

Examine

Information security program plan
privacy program plan
plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities
organizational procedures addressing the development and maintenance of plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities
risk management strategy
procedures for the review of plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities for consistency with risk management strategy and risk response priorities
results of risk assessments associated with conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities
documentation of the timely execution of plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities
other relevant documents or records

Interview

Organizational personnel with responsibilities for developing and maintaining plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities
organizational personnel with information security and privacy responsibilities

Test

Organizational processes for the development and maintenance of plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities
mechanisms supporting the development and maintenance of plans for conducting security and privacy testing, training, and monitoring activities

Official relationships

Related controls

These relationships come from the official OSCAL catalog. They indicate useful dependencies or context, not automatic inheritance or equivalence.

Source record

Authoritative sources

Bare Metal Cyber is an independent educational publisher and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST. Official control requirements and interpretations remain with NIST and the responsible authorizing organization.