organization-defined circumstance
163505·updated Aug 30, 2026A structured placeholder — specifically an **assignment-operation parameter** — embedded in a security or privacy control statement, indicating that the implementing organization must supply a locally determined set of situational conditions under which the control action applies or is modified. It is the variable part of a control or control enhancement that is instantiated by an organization during the tailoring process by either assigning an organization-defined value or selecting a value from a predefined list provided as part of the control or control enhancement. Concretely, the assignment operation allows an organization to assign a specific, organization-defined value to the control or control enhancement — for example, a list of roles to be notified or a value for the frequency of testing — and "circumstances" is simply the type of value the control author has left for the organization to fill in. Organization-defined parameters of this kind are used in SP 800-53 controls to provide flexibility to federal agencies in tailoring controls to support specific organizational missions or business functions and to manage risk.
Source
or when [ Assignment: organization-defined circumstances ].the sentence this term was read in
generalized from a web lookup of the quoted expression at proposal time Verdict: compositional.
- organization-defined parameter - Glossary | CSRC
- assignment operation - Glossary | CSRC
- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS NIST SP 800-171r3 and NIST SP 800-171Ar3
A definition generalized from search results is a draft to react to, not provenance. Confirm it against an authority document before this term is verified.
A web lookup ran when this term was proposed
A structured placeholder — specifically an **assignment-operation parameter** — embedded in a security or privacy control statement, indicating that the implementing organization must supply a locally determined set of situational conditions under which the control action applies or is modified. It is the variable part of a control or control enhancement that is instantiated by an organization during the tailoring process by either assigning an organization-defined value or selecting a value from a predefined list provided as part of the control or control enhancement. Concretely, the assignment operation allows an organization to assign a specific, organization-defined value to the control or control enhancement — for example, a list of roles to be notified or a value for the frequency of testing — and "circumstances" is simply the type of value the control author has left for the organization to fill in. Organization-defined parameters of this kind are used in SP 800-53 controls to provide flexibility to federal agencies in tailoring controls to support specific organizational missions or business functions and to manage risk.
Advisory only. A term this product ships is defined by an authority document, not by a search result.
Proposed during multiword review of this document in the CKI mapping queue.
Attested in
Classifications
Entity Type
Sensitivity
Information Class
Variants
- plural
- organization-defined circumstances
- possessive
- organization-defined circumstance's
- pluralpossessive
- organization-defined circumstances'
Framework definitions
- §1 · attested_usage_reviewer_confirmed
- No definition is given in NIST SP 800-171r3. The term is attested in use at 2 citations in that document; a definition is pending curation.Increment 2: attested in 800-171r3 without a glossary definition.
- §1 · web_lookup_draft
- A structured placeholder — specifically an **assignment-operation parameter** — embedded in a security or privacy control statement, indicating that the implementing organization must supply a locally determined set of situational conditions under which the control action applies or is modified. It is the variable part of a control or control enhancement that is instantiated by an organization during the tailoring process by either assigning an organization-defined value or selecting a value from a predefined list provided as part of the control or control enhancement. Concretely, the assignment operation allows an organization to assign a specific, organization-defined value to the control or control enhancement — for example, a list of roles to be notified or a value for the frequency of testing — and "circumstances" is simply the type of value the control author has left for the organization to fill in. Organization-defined parameters of this kind are used in SP 800-53 controls to provide flexibility to federal agencies in tailoring controls to support specific organizational missions or business functions and to manage risk.DR-088 backfill from the noun definition column