ISMS: Create business processes and link information

Business processes are your starting point in the ISMS. Once you create them and link the information they handle, Ariadne ISMS calculates the required protection of each process automatically. Later on, you will know for every system why it needs a certain level of protection.

Prerequisites

• You have access to Ariadne ISMS. Every role can create processes, including Employee.
• To edit a process, you are its Owner or a Stakeholder, or you have the Key User or Admin role.
• To take over pages from Ariadne, the Ariadne integration must be set up for your organization. Ariadne Support takes care of this.

Choose the right way to create a process

You always start with Business processes > + Create. In the dialog, choose one of two tabs.

Create manually

Manual tab

Quick start

You enter the title and description yourself. Only the title is required. Ideal when the process is not yet described in Ariadne or when you want to get a rough start.

When do I use this?

• There is no matching process page in Ariadne yet.
• You want to capture an initial list of processes quickly in a workshop.

Tip: You can link Ariadne pages later under Ariadne references.

Take over from Ariadne

Take over from Ariadne tab

Recommended

You pick a process page from your management system. The page title and summary are entered as a suggestion, and the page is linked as a reference right away. This way, quality management and information security work with the same processes.

When do I use this?

• The process is already described in Ariadne.
• You want the AI to make better suggestions for information later.

Tip: The AI reads the current content of all linked Ariadne pages. The better the page, the more accurate the suggestions.

Take over a process from Ariadne

1. Open Business processes and click + Create.
2. Select the Take over from Ariadne tab.
3. Enter at least two characters in Search Ariadne pages… and select the page you need.
4. Check Title and Content. You can edit both before creating the process. The selected page is shown under Ariadne page; use Change to pick another one.
5. Click Create.

Link Ariadne pages to the process

Under Ariadne references in the sidebar, click + to add more pages. This keeps all documents for the process, such as the process description and work instructions, in one place.

• A process can reference several pages, and a page can belong to several processes.
• If a page is already linked to other processes, the ISMS shows a notice listing them. You can still link it.
• Shown live: title, page type, page owner, workflow status, validity, module and last change. The workflow status belongs to the page, not to the process.
• Open the page content via the link to Ariadne. Your Ariadne read permissions apply there.
• The page search finds all pages in process modules, regardless of your Ariadne permissions.

What a reference display means

Link information and use AI suggestions

Only the linked information shows what is at stake in a process. This is where the required protection comes from.

1. Open the process and click + next to Processing information in the sidebar.
2. The AI first checks the existing links ("AI suggestions – Checking existing links…"). This takes about 20 to 60 seconds.
3. Under Existing information, link information that already exists using the link icon.
4. Under New information, you find suggestions marked with the AI suggestion badge. Click + to add a suggestion as new information.
5. If you enter a search term, the ISMS sorts all information by similarity.

Read the required protection of the process

As soon as information is linked and classified, the sidebar shows the required protection. You don't need to enter anything.

• Unclassified or archived information is not taken into account.
• When you change links or classifications, the ISMS recalculates the required protection automatically.
• You cannot change the derived required protection by hand. To adjust it, review the classification of the information.

Maintain and tidy up processes

• The … menu gives you Mark as confidential, Archive, Tags and Category.
• Attach evidence under Documents; see all changes under Activity.
• Deleting is not possible. Archive processes you no longer need.

Related articles

• ISMS: Classify information: confidentiality, integrity and data protection
• ISMS: Perform a business impact analysis and understand the MTPD
• ISMS: Create assets, maintain dependencies and derive required protection
• ISMS: Roles and permissions