Management Action Plan (MAP)
Definition
A formal document issued in response to an audit finding, recording the agreed corrective action, the accountable owner, the target closure date, and the expected evidence of completion. Also called a corrective action plan (CAP) in some frameworks.
- Triggered by
- An audit finding
- Records
- Corrective action, owner, target closure date, evidence expected
- Alternate name
- Corrective action plan (CAP)
- Owner
- Named accountable individual, not just a department
Common questions
Who is responsible for tracking a MAP to closure?+
The named accountable owner commits to the action, but audit or compliance functions typically maintain a remediation register that tracks open MAPs against their target dates and follows up when a date is missed or evidence of completion is not submitted.
What happens if the target closure date in a MAP is missed?+
Most remediation-tracking processes require the owner to provide a revised date and a reason for the delay, and repeated slippage is usually escalated to senior management or the audit committee rather than left to renew indefinitely without review.
Related terms
- Closure Evidence
- Documentation that demonstrates a finding has been remediated. Acceptable evidence types vary by control: updated policies with effective dates, configuration screenshots, vulnerability...
- Finding Owner
- The individual or team accountable for implementing the corrective action specified in a management action plan. The finding owner is typically the...
- Follow-Up Verification
- An independent check, usually by internal audit or the compliance function, that reviews closure evidence and confirms the control gap has been...
- Recurring Finding
- An audit finding that has appeared in two or more consecutive audit cycles despite previous remediation commitments. Recurring findings indicate that the...
- Risk Acceptance
- A formal decision by an authorised senior manager to tolerate a finding without full remediation, typically because the cost of remediation exceeds...