Software Engineering Institute

This technical report introduces the next generation of the Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation (OCTAVE) methodology, OCTAVE Allegro. OCTAVE Allegro is a methodology to streamline and optimize the process of assessing information security risks so that an organization can obtain sufficient results with a small investment in time, people, and other limited resources. It leads the organization to consider people, technology, and facilities in the context of their relationship to information and the business processes and services they support. This report highlights the design considerations and requirements for OCTAVE Allegro based on field experience with existing OCTAVE methods and provides guidance, worksheets, and examples that an organization can use to begin performing OCTAVE Allegro-based risk assessments.