What is Guidelines?
Guidelines Definition: Suggested practices and expectations of activity to best accomplish tasks and attain goals.
Understanding Guidelines
Suggested practices and expectations of activity to best accomplish tasks and attain goals. Guidelines are recommended but typically not mandatory approaches, practices, or procedures that provide guidance on how to implement policies or achieve objectives. They offer more flexibility than standards while providing useful direction for decision-making and implementation. Guidelines are referenced in frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST SP 800-53, and COBIT. Organizations develop guidelines as part of their policy hierarchy, supplementing formal policies and standards with practical implementation advice. For example, a company might have mandatory password policies and standards defining minimum requirements, supplemented by password guideline documents suggesting best practices for creating and managing strong, memorable passwords. Related terms: Policy, Standard, Procedure, Baseline, Best practice, Control implementation, Security documentation.