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Craft your program strategy: Orchestrating the four identity workstreams with a phased approach

ryan_cutter
SailPoint Employee
SailPoint Employee
1 0 765
‎Sep 04, 2025 11:52 AM

At the heart of every successful identity security program are four tightly connected workstreams—Identity, Connectivity, Data, and Security. In this post, we’ll show how to plan these workstreams in phases, how they feed one another, and which stakeholders should lead each area so your program delivers measurable value quarter after quarter.

Key objectives / takeaways

  • Understand the four foundational workstreams and how they interlock.
  • Use a phased approach to sequence work for faster, safer outcomes.
  • Identify core stakeholders, drivers, and “quick wins” for each workstream.
  • Connect workstreams to SailPoint best practices and milestones you can adopt today.

Why plan by phases?

A phased approach breaks complex identity initiatives into digestible waves, aligns delivery to business priorities, and creates frequent proof points to sustain funding and momentum. Typical phases move from foundations to lifecycle, activity & machines, access modeling & requests, then cloud/data/privileged enrichment and maturity.

Pair your phases with a living program charter and roadmap so every quarter ladders back to strategy and has clear, approved outcomes.

How the four workstreams fit together

  • Identity models people and machines, their attributes, and lifecycle—your single source of truth for who needs what.
  • Connectivity integrates directories, apps, cloud, and ITSM so you can see and govern accounts, access, and activity at scale.
  • Data turns identity and access data into insight with AI, peer analysis, and descriptions that clarify what an entitlement really does.
  • Security uses that data to run certifications, automate lifecycle and privileged tasks, enforce SoD, and respond to risky activity.

Think of it as a flywheel: identity definitions drive connectivity scope; connectivity feeds data; data powers security controls; those controls (e.g., reviews, requests) generate more data that refines identity and access models.

Plan the workstreams across phases

Phase 1: foundations

Phase 2: lifecycle & expansion

  • Identity: Add contractors/third parties via NELM; begin machine identity discovery later in the phase.
  • Connectivity: Onboard more critical apps using fit-for-purpose connectors; integrate ITSM for fulfillment.
  • Data: Use peer analysis and insights to guide who gets what. See access insights milestone →.
  • Security: Implement lifecycle management for joiners/movers/leavers to reduce manual work and risk.

Phase 3: activity & machine identities

  • Identity: Govern machine identities and service accounts with least privilege.
  • Connectivity: Ingest high-value activity streams for risk signals.
  • Data: Enrich models with activity data; use GenAI to improve entitlement descriptions.
  • Security: Leverage activity signals in reviews and threat response.

Phase 4: access modeling & requests

Phase 5+: cloud/data/privileged & maturity

  • Connectivity: Extend to cloud infra and on-prem platforms; apply consistent policies using CIEM.
  • Data: Govern unstructured data; keep cleanup feedback loops with authoritative sources.
  • Security: Automate privileged tasks (PTA) and enforce policy-based SoD. See policy modeling milestone →

Who owns what: stakeholders & drivers

Great orchestration requires clear ownership and a cadence that keeps leaders aligned. Your executive sponsor, program manager, and steering committee set direction, unblock decisions, and review KPIs together.

Identity workstream

  • Lead: Identity Security Cloud Admin/Engineer.
  • Core stakeholders: HRIS owners, business/system analysts.
  • Primary drivers: Accurate identity data, role/attribute design, NELM scope.
  • Quick wins: HR feed integration; automated joiner/leaver flows.

Connectivity workstream

  • Lead: Connectivity/Virtual Appliance engineer with directory/SSO owners.
  • Core stakeholders: App owners, Network & ITSM teams.
  • Primary drivers: App onboarding plan, activity ingestion, ITSM integration.
  • Quick wins: AD + SSO connectors; onboarding two high-value SaaS apps.

Data workstream

  • Lead: Identity data/analytics owner (often ISC Admin or Analyst).
  • Core stakeholders: Security, Audit, app owners (for entitlement context).
  • Primary drivers: Outlier detection, AI-assisted insights, access descriptions, data cleanup.
  • Quick wins: Enable analytics dashboards; pilot GenAI descriptions to improve reviews.

Security workstream

  • Lead: Security architect / GRC lead.
  • Core stakeholders: Risk/Compliance, IAM ops, app owners, PAM team.
  • Primary drivers: Certifications, lifecycle automation, access requests, PTA/PAM, SoD.
  • Quick wins: Targeted certifications; automate high-risk deprovisioning.

Use your staffing plan to assign time and expectations across these roles and avoid single-threaded delivery.

Putting it all together

  • Anchor to strategy: Start with a clear charter and quarterly roadmap checkpoints with your steering committee.
  • Deliver in waves: Sequence foundation → lifecycle → activity/machines → access modeling/requests → cloud/data/privileged → maturity.
  • Measure relentlessly: Track time-to-provision, certification completion, high-risk entitlement reduction, and request SLA—socialize wins to sustain funding.

In a nutshell / next steps

The fastest path to identity program value is not doing everything at once; it’s orchestrating the four workstreams so each phase produces data and outcomes that accelerate the next. Start small, prove value, and keep the flywheel turning.

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