NIST 800-53 REV 5 • INCIDENT RESPONSE
IR-3(3) — Continuous Improvement
Use qualitative and quantitative data from testing to: Determine the effectiveness of incident response processes; Continuously improve incident response processes; and Provide incident response measures and metrics that are accurate, consistent, and in a reproducible format.
CMMC Practice Mapping
No direct CMMC mapping
NIST 800-171 Mapping
No direct NIST 800-171 mapping
Related Controls
No related controls listed
Supplemental Guidance
To help incident response activities function as intended, organizations may use metrics and evaluation criteria to assess incident response programs as part of an effort to continually improve response performance. These efforts facilitate improvement in incident response efficacy and lessen the impact of incidents.
Practitioner Notes
Every time you test your incident response capability, you should be measuring results and using that data to get better. This enhancement formalizes the continuous improvement loop — test, measure, fix, repeat.
Example 1: After each IR exercise or real incident, conduct a formal after-action review. Track metrics like mean time to detect (MTTD), mean time to respond (MTTR), and communication delays. Log these in a spreadsheet and trend them over time.
Example 2: Use your SIEM's built-in reporting (Splunk dashboards, Microsoft Sentinel workbooks) to measure detection accuracy during simulated attacks. Compare quarter-over-quarter and set improvement targets — for example, reducing MTTD from 4 hours to 2 hours within six months.