The Real Priorities of an Identity & Access Management Program
Everyone loves to talk about security.
“Did you turn on MFA?”
“Did you enforce SSO?”
“Did you harden your auth for that app no one even uses anymore?”
And don’t get me wrong — those things matter. But they’re not the foundation of a mature Identity & Access Management (IAM) program. They’re the polish on the edges. The shiny locks on a building where half the keys are still unaccounted for.
So what is the right order of operations?
1. Visibility Before Control
You can’t secure what you can’t see. Most companies start reacting to “access sprawl” only when someone asks, “Who still has access to that?” — and no one can answer.
Before you buy another tool, before you spin up another integration, make sure you have a single source of truth for:
- Who your people are (HRIS or directory)
- What systems they can access
- How and why that access was granted
Think of it like building your identity graph — not the marketing kind, the real one that ties humans to entitlements.
This isn’t just opinion. It’s the first pillar in every major framework:
- NIST SP 800-53 starts with Account Management (AC-1 to AC-6) — identification and inventory before any authentication.
- ISO/IEC 27002:2022 outlines Access Control in the same order: define business requirements → manage provisioning → then enforce authentication.
Visibility first. Always.
2. Automate the Mundane
Once you can see it, stop doing it manually.
Manual onboarding, Slack DMs for access, “can you remove this person from Salesforce?” emails — those are all risk vectors. Not because people are bad, but because they’re busy.
Automated provisioning isn’t just convenience. It’s hygiene. It ensures that when someone joins, changes roles, or leaves — the right access flips automatically, and nothing lingers.
The goal: get to zero-touch lifecycle changes. Or as we like to call it, no more “oops, they still had access.”
Both Gartner’s IAM Maturity Model and Forrester’s Zero Trust Framework agree: automation of provisioning and deprovisioning is the second foundational stage. Gartner even calls it “the inflection point where IAM shifts from reactive to governed.”
3. Policy Meets Workflow
Policies sound great on paper:
“Access must be reviewed every 90 days.”
“Only managers can approve new access.”
But in the real world, policy without workflow just creates audit theater.
Your IAM system should enforce the intent of your policy — not just document it. That means building real, operational workflows for:
- Access requests and approvals
- Temporary or just-in-time access
- Periodic reviews and re-attestation
When the process mirrors how your teams actually work, compliance stops feeling like punishment.
According to CIS Critical Security Controls v8, “Account Management” and “Access Control Management” are distinct — and the connective tissue between them is process automation and review cadence.
4. Then — Harden Authentication
Only now should you care about the front door.
Once you’ve got provisioning and workflows in place, go back and harden your authentication surface:
- Enforce MFA everywhere
- Add device or location checks
- Centralize auth with your IdP
At that point, you’re protecting an environment you actually understand. Without that foundation, tightening auth is like putting a fancy alarm system on a house with open windows.
Gartner calls this the “Access Management stage” — valuable, but dependent on strong governance underneath.
5. Continuous Review, Not Point-in-Time Audits
Identity isn’t static — it changes every day. New hires, project access, contractors, mergers. The “state” of access is a moving target.
The best IAM programs don’t just audit annually. They continuously attest to what’s real right now. That’s where AI, smart policies, and automation shine — keeping your environment aligned with intent without constant human babysitting.
The TL;DR
If you’re just starting or rethinking your IAM program:
- Visibility first — know who has access and why.
- Automate provisioning — no more manual adds/removes.
- Enforce through workflow — policy that actually executes.
- Then harden authentication — strong locks on a well-managed house.
- Continuously review — access isn’t static.
These aren’t random steps — they’re the shared backbone across NIST, ISO 27001, CIS, Gartner, and Forrester. Different frameworks, same message: start with identity logic, end with auth polish.
Most companies over-index on locks and underinvest in logic. At YeshID, we help you flip that script — visibility, automation, and control that scale with your stack. Learn how real-world workflows make IAM actually work.
