Privileged Access Management Guides Library
Vendor-neutral PAM guides, templates and playbooks for every stage of your privileged access journey.
PAM Best Practice has created a practical library of guides to help learners, practitioners, educators and security leaders move from awareness to implementation. The guides turn PAM concepts into usable checklists, workbooks, templates and decision frameworks that can support real projects, training, community discussion and internal planning.
Use the guides alongside the PAM Periodic Table and PAM video training. The Periodic Table explains the core domains of privileged access management, the video training builds structured understanding, and the guides provide practical resources to apply that knowledge in live environments.
Request access to the guides | View PAM video training | Use the PAM Periodic Table
More than information: a practical PAM resource library
Most PAM content is either vendor-led, product-specific or too high level to help teams make practical decisions. This library is designed to be different. Each guide is written from a vendor-neutral best-practice perspective and focuses on the decisions, controls, documents and workflows that practitioners actually need when building or improving a PAM capability.
The guides can be used as a value-add for PAM Academy learners, a supporting resource for video training, a practical companion to the PAM Periodic Table, and a lead-in for organisations that need structured PAM templates, implementation support or practitioner-led insight.
Featured guide boxes
Each guide below has its own card, short description and placeholder read link. When the individual guide pages are created, each placeholder can be replaced with the correct page URL.
Learner guides
What is Privileged Access Management?
A plain-English introduction to PAM, why it matters and how it protects high-risk access.
The PAM Acronym Decoder
A practical glossary for common privileged access, identity, security and compliance terms.
PAM Roles and Career Paths
Understand PAM job roles, responsibilities and the skills needed to move into the field.
Getting Started with Least Privilege
Learn how least privilege reduces risk and how to apply it to users, systems and services.
Privileged Account Basics
Recognise administrator, root, database, service and emergency accounts before managing them.
Just-in-Time Access Explained
Replace standing privilege with approved, time-bound access that reduces exposure.
Practitioner guides and templates
PAM Implementation Checklist
A structured checklist for discovery, design, onboarding, operations and improvement activity.
Privileged Account Discovery Playbook
Identify privileged accounts, ownership, risk, usage and gaps before deployment begins.
PAM RFP Template
Capture requirements, evaluation criteria and procurement questions for PAM selection activity.
High-Level Design Template
Document the target PAM architecture, integrations, assumptions and design decisions.
Privileged Access Design Document Template
Turn PAM requirements into practical design detail for implementation and review.
Asset Onboarding Workbook
Plan which systems, platforms and applications should be onboarded into PAM first.
Account Onboarding Workbook
Track privileged accounts, owners, controls, dependencies and onboarding status.
Deployment Strategy Guide
Sequence PAM rollout activity across people, process, technology and operational readiness.
Service Account and Non-Human Identity Inventory
Document service credentials, automation accounts, secrets, ownership and lifecycle risk.
Privileged Session Monitoring Guide
Plan when to record, monitor, review and evidence privileged sessions.
PAM Audit Checklist for Compliance
Prepare evidence for audits, control testing, privileged reviews and governance reporting.
Leader, architect and compliance guides
Building a PAM Programme from Scratch
Create a phased PAM programme with governance, ownership, priorities and measurable outcomes.
PAM Maturity Model and Assessment Framework
Assess current capability and identify the next improvements across PAM domains.
Compliance Convergence Guide
Map PAM activity across NIST, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, DORA, NIS2 and Cyber Essentials.
Zero Trust Architecture and PAM
Connect PAM controls with zero trust principles, identity assurance and least privilege.
Cloud-Native PAM for DevOps and Non-Human Identities
Address cloud access, pipelines, workloads, secrets and automation-driven privilege.
Building a SOC Function for PAM
Define how security operations can monitor, triage and respond to privileged access activity.
Insider Threat and PAM
Use PAM controls to reduce, detect and investigate insider-driven privileged access risk.
How the guides work with the Periodic Table and video training
The PAM Periodic Table introduces the major building blocks of privileged access management. The video training explains those concepts in a structured learning journey. The guides then turn the learning into action by giving users the templates, checklists and playbooks they can use to plan, compare, document and improve PAM activity.
This creates a clear learning and commercial pathway: people can start with free awareness resources, deepen their knowledge through video training, download practical guides, and then engage with PAM Best Practice through community contribution, mentoring, partner activity or paid learning pathways.
Free resources, premium templates and community-led updates
Free introductory guides can help users understand the basics. Gated practitioner templates can capture higher-intent enquiries. Premium guide packs can be bundled with PAM Academy video training, workshops, partner sessions or community membership. The guides can also be updated quarterly as PAM practice, compliance expectations and community lessons evolve.
Access the PAM Guides Library
Explore the guides as a practical companion to the PAM Periodic Table and PAM video training. Whether you are learning PAM, building a programme, preparing for audit, comparing vendors or improving an existing deployment, the guide library is designed to help you move from theory to action.
Request access to the guides | Explore PAM Academy | Contribute a guide or case study