How Planned Link certified to DCC Level 1 on Snubnose

Planned Link is a UK Defence Cyber Certification Body. Its Cyber Security Consultant, James Hogg, led the firm's own DCC Level 1 certification on Snubnose, and now assesses other suppliers against DefStan 05-138 inside the same platform.

This is what that looked like from the inside, in his words.

Two jobs at once

Planned Link had two things to do. The first was to certify itself to DCC Level 1. The second was to stand up as a working Certification Body, able to take suppliers through the same scheme with confidence. Both ran on Snubnose, which meant the team learned the supplier experience and the assessor experience from the same workspace.

A methodical process

James's word for the experience was methodical. Rather than holding the standard, a folder of evidence, and a separate tracker in three different places, everything sat in one workspace.

"Using Snubnose was more streamlined and structured, allowing me to follow a methodical process."

DCC asks for a lot of detail, and the hard part is rarely producing a single piece of evidence. It is knowing whether what you have produced actually clears the bar, and keeping every piece in order while you work through the full control set. That is where the platform earned its place.

"Without it the whole process would have been extremely challenging, due to the amount of detail required. Evidence collection would have been a struggle, and storing it would have been an issue too. Snubnose let me store everything in the platform and gave me constant feedback on whether the evidence was to the required standard. Getting that constant feedback was invaluable."

Assessing another Certification Body

Planned Link then assessed a fellow Certification Body, Dalton Cyber, through the assessor side of Snubnose. Because both sides worked in the same place, the review ran the same way the preparation had.

"Again, this allowed the process to be more structured and easier to follow, made easier by the fact that everything was held in the platform."

Why Planned Link puts clients through it

James now sits on the assessor's side of the table. His verdict on the supplier experience is the one that matters most to a supplier deciding how to certify.

"Yes, I would put my own clients through it. It makes the whole process a lot easier to follow, for both parties."