Axel Hoehnke
ISO 27001 · NIS2 · CRA

TheComplianceSprint

Scoped before it starts. Finished when it's done. Audit-ready in 30 days — a fixed-scope engagement that maps your existing infrastructure to what regulators actually verify.

// sprint_tracker.live ◉ ACTIVE
Week 01 — Orientation & Gap Analysis DONE ✓
Week 02 — Risk Assessment DONE ✓
Week 03 — Documentation & Governance IN PROGRESS
Week 04 — Awareness & Incident Readiness NEXT
Audit-Ready Package Delivery PENDING
30Days Total
4Phases
3Frameworks
01

Compliance Takes Too Long

Traditional ISO 27001 implementations span 12–18 months. Consultancies bill by the hour and incentivise complexity. SMEs cannot afford the time or the cost.

02

Requirements Are Ambiguous

NIS2, CRA, and ISO 27001 use overlapping, technical language. Most organisations cannot map what they already do to what regulators actually require without expert guidance.

03

Audit Prep Is Reactive

Evidence is gathered under pressure in the weeks before an audit. Gaps surface too late to close. The result is a stressful, expensive scramble that repeats every cycle.

04

Governance Is Undocumented

Roles and responsibilities exist informally. Without a RACI framework and documented procedures, regulators cannot verify accountability — regardless of actual security maturity.

05

Risk Is Not Quantified

Risk registers either do not exist or list assets without scored severity. Unquantified risk cannot be prioritised, resourced, or reported to the board with confidence.

06

Incidents Have No Playbook

NIS2 mandates incident reporting within 24 hours of awareness. Without a tested incident response procedure, that deadline cannot be met — and regulators will notice.

Four Weeks to
Audit Readiness

A structured, fixed-scope engagement. Every phase has defined inputs, outputs, and a handoff point. No scope creep. No open-ended retainer.

WEEK 01

Orientation & Gap Analysis

Kickoff with leadership and IT stakeholders. A CyberCheck Basic assessment (BSI/ENISA-aligned) establishes the baseline. Applicable controls under ISO 27001, NIS2, and CRA are identified and a prioritised gap register is delivered before week-end.

CyberCheck Basic Gap Register Stakeholder Interviews
WEEK 02

Risk Assessment

Rapid risk-scoring of Top-5 risks (ISO 27005). Likelihood and impact rated per asset and business process. Quick-win mitigations planned to reduce exposure before audit activity begins.

ISO 27005 Risk Register Quick-Wins
WEEK 03

Documentation & Governance

RACI framework assigns responsibilities across all security domains. IT-operations documentation written or updated. Compliance overview document produced — cross-referenced to framework controls and ready for external review.

RACI IT Ops Docs Compliance Overview
WEEK 04

Awareness & Incident Readiness

Scenario-based security-awareness workshop for all staff. NIS2 incident response procedure drafted and tabletop-tested. Final deliverable: the complete audit-ready evidence package.

Awareness Workshop NIS2 IR Playbook Tabletop Exercise
Outputs Gap Analysis Report ISO 27005 Risk Register RACI Framework IT Operations Docs Compliance Overview NIS2 IR Procedure Awareness Workshop Audit-Ready Package

What You Leave
With

Eight concrete outputs. Every document is audit-ready, written in plain language, and owned entirely by your organisation — no vendor lock-in.

Gap Analysis Report

A prioritised, framework-mapped list of open compliance gaps across ISO 27001, NIS2, and CRA — with remediation effort estimates and recommended sequencing.

ISO 27005 Risk Register

Top-5 scored risks with likelihood and impact ratings, asset mapping, risk owners, and quick-win mitigation actions. Ready for board reporting and audit evidence submission.

RACI Governance Framework

Role-and-responsibility assignments across all relevant security domains — defining who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for every key control.

IT Operations Documentation

Baseline procedures for patch management, access control, and backup — written to the vocabulary of your actual infrastructure, not a generic template.

Compliance Overview Document

A single-page regulatory map showing applicable controls, current status, evidence locations, and open gaps — designed for auditor hand-off and board-level review.

NIS2 Incident Response Procedure

A tested, role-assigned incident response playbook covering detection, internal escalation, NIS2 72-hour notification, and post-incident review. Includes tabletop exercise log.

Security Awareness Workshop

A two-hour scenario-based session for all staff — delivered live or recorded. Covers phishing, social engineering, regulatory obligations, and incident reporting procedures.

30-Day Audit-Ready Package

All seven documents above compiled into a structured evidence folder — indexed, cross-referenced to framework controls, and ready for submission to an external auditor.

Compliance Sprints
in the Field

Two live engagements — the same sprint structure, two different clients, two different regulators. Download the full case studies to see how findings were resolved and certifications confirmed.

ISO 27001 Stage 2 · Zürich

Legal AI Technology Company

Two-week sprint. 100% of Stage 1 findings addressed. 2 minor non-conformities raised — both resolved with accepted corrective action records. Certification confirmed by the British Assessment Bureau.

ISO 27001 Internal Audit · Austria

Medical Diagnostics Provider

Two-week internal audit with Vanta access. 15 evidence gaps identified and mapped to specific controls. Report delivered day 14 and uploaded to Vanta with a timestamped audit trail. Led to a 6-month vCISO retainer.

Compliance is not a documentation exercise — it is a discipline of knowing your infrastructure well enough to defend it. The sprint forces that knowledge to the surface in 30 days, so regulators see what you have built, not what you plan to build.
— Axel Hoehnke · ISO 27001 Lead Auditor · ISO 42001 Lead Auditor

Built for
These Organisations

SMEs Under NIS2

  • Essential & important entities under the NIS2 Directive
  • No dedicated compliance function in-house
  • Audit deadline within 3–6 months
  • Need structured governance documentation

Scale-Ups & SaaS

  • Seeking ISO 27001 certification for enterprise sales
  • Customer due-diligence questionnaires piling up
  • Engineering-led culture without compliance process
  • Need audit readiness in a single sprint

Hardware Manufacturers

  • Products in scope of the EU Cyber Resilience Act
  • SBOM and vulnerability disclosure obligations
  • CE-readiness assessment required
  • Need CRA scope mapping and technical file preparation

Regulatory
Frameworks Addressed

The sprint maps to all three major EU cybersecurity frameworks simultaneously — eliminating the need for sequential, framework-by-framework programmes.

ISO 27001:2022
Information security management system. Annex A controls mapped to your existing infrastructure. Gap register cross-referenced to certification requirements.
NIS2 Directive
EU Directive on network and information security for essential and important entities. Incident response, risk management, and supply chain measures addressed.
EU Cyber Resilience Act
Cybersecurity requirements for connected products. SBOM obligations, vulnerability disclosure procedures, and CE-readiness documentation covered where applicable.
BSI / ENISA Baseline
CyberCheck Basic assessment aligned to BSI IT-Grundschutz and ENISA good practices — providing an independent baseline against European national standards.
ISO 27005
Information security risk management. Risk scoring methodology, likelihood and impact matrices, risk register structure, and treatment decision framework.

30 Days to
Audit-Ready

One fixed-scope sprint. Eight auditor-ready deliverables. No open-ended retainer.
Schedule a 30-minute scoping call to confirm applicability and start date.

Schedule a Scoping Call meet@axelhoehnke.com