From spreadsheets to real-time: How federal agencies are modernizing FISMA, RMF and Zero Trust Compliance

Federal compliance teams have heard the same conversation for a decade: New frameworks arrive, risks multiply and the response is still people, paper and spreadsheets. Everyone talks about wanting to take an automated data driven approach. Not everybody does, because they haven't looked at the solutions that help them do that.

With FISMA, the Risk Management Framework (RMF), Zero Trust and continuous controls monitoring (CCM) converging on federal IT teams at once, that gap between intention and execution is no longer just an efficiency problem, it's a mission risk.

Why federal IT compliance is stuck in the past

The reason compliance remains spreadsheet-driven is rarely indifference. It is resourcing. Without a purpose-built tool, agencies rely on people to gather evidence, update plans and coordinate reviews, and people rely on spreadsheets to manage the work.

That approach is increasingly difficult to defend. FISMA requires ongoing assessment and monitoring of security controls, with changes documented in the System Security and Privacy Plan. That approach is needed because Federal agencies reported more than 32,000 information security incidents in 2023, including 11 major breaches.

When controls are reviewed periodically across disconnected systems, vulnerabilities compound. Faulty controls stay unfixed, recurring risks go unchecked and evidence goes stale. As Katja Freeman, a former municipal audit director, observed: “Information is scattered across departments and systems that don't talk to each other... Risk gets identified in pockets.” Fragmentation, not lack of effort, is the real bottleneck.

Four pressure points, one compliance challenge

Four mandates are now landing on the same desks simultaneously, and treating them as separate initiatives is no longer sustainable.

1. FISMA requires annual program reviews and continuous monitoring. It also affects contractors and third-party providers operating systems for federal agencies.
2. RMF and continuous Authorization to Operate (cATO) shift authorization from a point-in-time event toward continuous risk awareness. For example, Department of War cATO criteria include continuous control monitoring, active cyber defense and DevSecOps adoption.
3. Zero Trust requires continuous verification of users, devices and transactions. CISA’s Zero Trust Maturity Model 2.0 organizes the work around five pillars: Identity, Devices, Networks, Applications and Workloads, and Data. Diligent’s NIST-aligned Zero Trust roadmap explains why Zero Trust must connect security controls to governance and risk oversight.
4. Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM) connects the other three by collecting evidence continuously, testing controls across populations and surfacing exceptions as they occur rather than months later.

These priorities should not be managed as separate programs. Together, they require a connected compliance workflow that replaces manual data calls with current, comprehensive, and defensible evidence.

What automation changes. It’s not just efficiency but risk visibility.

Automation is not simply a productivity initiative. Its real value is risk visibility: Surfacing control failures earlier while freeing skilled staff for strategic work.

In practice, control evidence is pulled from IT environments through connectors, mapped to frameworks such as NIST 800-53 and used to trigger workflows. When a test fails, the platform can assign ownership, initiate remediation and update the POA&M without manual intervention.

The potential impact is substantial. Agencies with portfolios of 15 to 20 systems or more are reported to be realizing $1M+ in annual savings, reducing authorization cycles by up to half and cutting audit-support effort by 25–35%. FedRAMP-authorized GRC platforms such as Diligent have also helped agencies reduce ATO timelines by 40–60%.

These aren't abstractions. One cybersecurity and SaaS provider reduced its FedRAMP staffing requirements by roughly 50%, moved from reactive preparation to structured quarterly reviews and replaced manual Word-template editing with one-click FedRAMP and OSCAL exports.

As cyber risk oversight expectations tighten across government and industry alike, board members and executives responsible for agency or contractor risk posture may also want to deepen their own governance expertise.

For leaders responsible for cyber oversight, the Diligent Institute Cyber Risk & Strategy Certification, exclusive to Diligent platform subscribers, offers self-paced learning available anytime, anywhere. The program includes an interactive tabletop exercise, a verified digital badge and 13.5–16.5 CPD hours.

Automation first, Analytics next, AI last

It is tempting to lead with AI. That is the wrong sequence. Federal GRC modernization works best in three stages:

1. Automation creates repeatable workflows
2. Analytics turns telemetry into actionable intelligence
3. AI accelerates response and decision-making on top of that foundation.

Generic language models may be useful for many tasks, but they cannot replace clean, current and well-governed evidence. Purpose-built AI can help identify emerging risks, suggest controls and flag the data needed to confirm that controls are working.

A practical path forward

Agencies do not need to solve everything at once. A phased approach is more practical:

• Centralize evidence, controls and ownership.
• Automate routine testing and remediation workflows.
• Establish continuous monitoring across high-value controls.
• Add analytics and AI only after the underlying data is reliable.

For agencies pursuing cATO, three steps are especially important: Validate OSCAL formats with the reviewing body early, implement common controls across enclaves and suppliers, and normalize exception workflows so POA&M entries can be populated from source telemetry and service tickets.

How Diligent helps

Federal agencies don't need to choose between FISMA, RMF, Zero Trust and continuous controls monitoring. They need one connected workflow that handles all four without adding headcount or duct-taping together disconnected tools. That's the gap Diligent's solutions for federal government were built to close:

• Centralizing controls, evidence, SSPs and POA&Ms.
• Automating continuous testing and OSCAL-ready outputs compatible with eMASS, Xacta and CSAM.
• Giving CIOs, CISOs, Authorizing Officials and program leaders real-time dashboards instead of static, backward-looking reports.

Schedule a demo today to see how Diligent helps federal teams move from manual, document-centric compliance to live, automated, continuously monitored assurance.