Manage CDE Standards¶
Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation
Add a New CDE Standard¶
In addition to the default CDE standards, you can create any number of custom standards to support your organization’s CDE governance practices. All custom standards that you create will use the Template Overlay type. Template Overlay standards apply on top of the default standards, which provide the baseline requirements for CDE metadata, risk assessment, approvals workflow, and curation scoring.
You must base every new CDE standard on an existing business policy. A business policy is a prerequisite for creating a Template Overlay standard. (For more information about policies, see Working with Policies.)
Creating a new CDE standard is an AI-assisted workflow. AI processes the source business policy and derives requirements from its content using the internal governance logic of the CDE Manager. You cannot create a CDE standard without selecting a source policy, and you cannot create a standard that is not derived from one.
Adding a new standard follows the three-step lifecycle workflow. Each change must move through the following states:
Draft: You create a draft version of the standard and define or modify its editable elements.
In Review: The draft is reviewed by the standard owner, who may approve the changes or request additional updates.
Published: The reviewed version becomes active and replaces the previous version, which is automatically deprecated.
See more in Understanding Versioning of Standards.
To add a new CDE standard:
In CDE Manager > Standards, click the Add New Standard button. The Add New Standard dialog opens.
From the Source Policy list, choose the policy that will serve as the basis for the new standard. You can use the Search field to filter the list by policy name. Begin typing a keyword, and the list updates to show matching policies.
Click Create Standard. A new standard is created and added to the Standards table. It inherits the name of the source policy you selected.
In the table, click the name of the newly created standard. The standard opens in the Draft state. Initially, you may see a message indicating that AI is processing the policy and generating the initial content. When the process completes, the content appears in a structured template that includes these sections:
Purpose
Scope
Derived Requirements
The Derived Requirements section contains sets of governable fields generated from the source policy using AI.
Note
The source policy linked to the standard is displayed in the Source field in the lower-right section of the standard’s page.
Click Edit in the top-right corner to enable editing of the generated content.
You can update any of the following elements:
Purpose
Scope
Derived Requirements, including:
Update the section Description
Add a new requirement
Remove a requirement
Reorder requirements
Add a new field to a requirement
Remove a field from a requirement
Reorder fields within a requirement
Edit field metadata, such as Name, Type, and Accepted Values
Click Save in the top-right corner to save your changes.
When you are ready to move the draft forward, click Submit for Review under the Draft step in the stepper at the top of the editor. This moves the draft into the In Review state, where approvers defined in the Approval Rules standard can evaluate the changes and either publish the standard or request further updates. If you are not ready to submit the draft, you may continue editing and save your progress. You can also close the standard and return to the draft later.
For more information about reviewing and approving standard drafts, see Review CDE Standard Drafts.
Understanding Versioning of Standards¶
CDE standards follow a structured versioning workflow to ensure that changes are reviewed, approved, and published in a controlled and auditable manner. Each standard exists in one of three lifecycle states: Draft, In Review, or Published. When a published standard is updated, a new Draft version is created.
Note
Default standards (Approval Rules, Baseline Metadata, Risk Assessment Framework, and Curation Score Standard) are initially provided as published versions owned by the system user CDE Admin. This ownership indicates that the version was generated by the system; it is not an assignable user role. Any updates to these standards create new draft versions that follow the same workflow as any other standard.
Versioning ensures that governance rules evolve in a controlled manner. Existing CDEs remain aligned with the currently published version, so updates to standards may trigger re-evaluation or require additional curation work.
Draft¶
The Draft state is used for creating or modifying a standard. When you edit a standard, whether it is a default standard or a Template Overlay standard derived from a policy, you begin by creating a draft. In the draft state, you can update editable elements such as the purpose, scope, and derived requirements. The user who creates a draft is the draft’s Owner. Draft versions do not affect existing CDEs until they are reviewed and published.
In Review¶
Once the draft is ready for evaluation, you move it to the In Review state. Approvers defined in the Approval Rules standard are responsible for assessing the proposed changes. Reviewers may approve the draft, allowing it to move forward, or reject it with a rationale and request revisions. A draft must be approved before it can be published.
Published¶
A standard becomes active when it reaches the Published state. The newly published version immediately replaces the previous version, which becomes Deprecated but remains accessible from the version selector for audit history. CDE Manager uses the published version of a standard whenever applying requirements during CDE creation, evaluation, and compliance monitoring.
Delete a CDE Standard Draft¶
Draft Owners can delete draft versions that are no longer needed.
To delete a draft:
In CDE Manager > Standards, open the draft you want to remove.
In the top-right corner, click the three-dot menu and select Delete Draft.
The draft version is deleted, and the standard reverts to its most recent published version.
Review CDE Standard Drafts¶
The review process for CDE standards is governed by a default standard called Approval Rules standard, which is included automatically in the CDE Manager. The users and groups defined in the Approval Rules standard determine who is authorized to review and approve CDE standards. Only reviewers specified in this standard can move a draft through the workflow.
For example, if Catalog Admins are assigned as reviewers in the Approval Rules standard, any user with the Catalog Admin role will be able to review, approve, or reject a CDE standard.
To review a standard:
Navigate to CDE Manager > Standards and click the name of the standard you want to review. Drafts awaiting review display the status Pending Approval. The standard’s page will open in the In Review state.
Review the Purpose, Scope, and Derived Requirements to ensure they meet your governance and policy expectations.
Click Review under the In Review step in the stepper at the top of the page. The Approval dialog opens.
Select one of the following under Decision:
Approve: The content is complete and ready for publishing.
Reject: The content requires further changes before it can be published.
Enter your comments in the Rationale text area. Providing feedback is important when rejecting a draft so the owner clearly understands what needs improvement.
Click Submit Review to finalize your decision.
If you selected Approve, the draft is promoted to the Published state, and the previous version is automatically assigned the Deprecated status. The updated standard becomes active and is now used when creating or evaluating CDEs.
If you selected Reject, the draft returns to the Draft state. The owner can revise the content and resubmit it for review once the necessary updates are made.
Read next: Manage CDE Registry