What it means
Service dependency management maps and controls the services, mounts, networks, identities, secrets, timers, and startup conditions a workload requires to operate safely.
Why it matters
A service can be correctly configured and still fail because an implicit dependency is late, missing, or degraded; dependency design makes those assumptions visible and testable.
Practical focus
- Define the upstream and downstream dependencies of each critical service and the security outcome it must support
- Apply explicit ordering, health checks, timeouts, failure handling, and documented ownership through documented, reviewable configuration
- Verify dependency state, startup timing, degraded modes, and cascading alerts after changes and on a scheduled basis
- Plan for an unavailable dependency causing loops, partial startup, or unsafe failover, including rollback, ownership, and escalation
Common mistakes
- Enabling a feature without defining what it should protect
- Relying on defaults or one-time validation
- Granting broad exceptions that erase the control boundary
- Treating an unavailable dependency causing loops, partial startup, or unsafe failover as an operational surprise instead of a test case
Certification relevance
This subject appears in or supports the following certification bodies of knowledge: