Importing narratives

Copy narratives and associated items from a framework to a project to build out your own templates or programs, re-use existing frameworks, or execute a similar process in a different location.

Note

Narratives are only available in projects and frameworks associated with an Internal Control workflow.

Before you start

Before you can import narratives, you need to:

  1. Create a project and a framework.
  2. Define objectives in the project and framework.
  3. Define narratives in the framework.
  4. Ensure that both your source framework and target project have the custom attributes and fields you need.
Note

Depending on your organization's project or framework configuration, objectives may also be called sections, processes, cycles, functional areas, application systems, risk categories, or another custom term.

How it works

You can import narratives from a framework to an active project within the same Diligent One instance. Then, if you make changes to an imported narrative in the project, you can sync those changes back to the framework. For more information, see Syncing projects with Frameworks.

Requirements

Importing narratives requires that both the framework and project:

Considerations and limitations

Limitations

  • Citation Mode highlights and linked files do not display in framework narratives.
  • Each objective in a project or framework can contain a maximum of 1000 risks and 1000 controls.

How items are copied when project types are different

When importing a narrative, if the target project has a required field that is blank, the first available value from the required field is chosen.

Example

You are importing a narrative with an associated control from Project A to Project B. The projects have different project types.

The Prevent or Detect? control field in Project A is blank. When you import the control to Project B, the field will also be blank. However, because the field is required, this will cause the import process to fail.

To complete the import process successfully, the first available value (Prevent) is automatically chosen from the following list of values: Prevent, Detect, N/A.

Items copied only when project types are the same

The following associated items are copied only if the project type of the framework and project are the same:

If the project type of the framework and project are not the same, only field values from the above items are copied.

Including control associations

You have the option to include control associations to the narrative. If you choose to include control associations, the following occurs:

Scenario What happens
The associated controls do exist in the target project.

Narratives are imported and associated with existing controls.

The associated controls do not exist in the target project.

Only narratives are imported.

If you do not choose to include control associations, only narratives are imported.

What happens when I import a narrative?

The following information is included or excluded when you import a narrative:

Included items Excluded items
  • Narrative attributes Title, Description
  • Narrative associations Latest versions of attachments
  • Control associations Only included if this option is selected when importing narratives
  • Issues, requests, to-dos, and time entries associated with narratives
  • Control associations, such as walkthroughs, test plans, and testing rounds

Permissions

Professional Managers and Professional Users can import narratives.

Import narratives to active projects

Import narratives from a framework to another active project.

  1. From the Launchpad home page (www.highbond.com), select the Projects app to open it.

    If you are already in Diligent One, you can use the left-hand navigation menu to switch to the Projects app.

    The Projects home page opens.

  2. Open a project you want to import narratives to.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Click the Fieldwork tab.
  4. Click Go To next to the appropriate objective and select Narratives.
  5. Click Import Narrative.
  6. Select the appropriate framework from the Framework list that you want to import narratives from.

    A list of narratives, organized by objective, displays.

  7. Select the narratives you want to import.
  8. Include each Control association If you are importing from a framework to an active project, keep this option selected to include control associations:
    • If the controls do exist in the target project Narratives are imported and associated with existing controls.
    • If the controls do not exist in the target project Only narratives are imported.
  9. Click Import.

    Result The import process begins.