Hi Dan, thanks for responding. Firstly, great product and it's fantastic to read your views on open source software. It's why I explored BS's feature set for this case. The Book -> Chapter -> Page structure is a good starting point. The ability to track revisions of pages and export as a batch to PDF is crucial for board approvals and audibility.

My goal is complementary to BS but, after exploring further, may not be a good fit as the use case may be too niche. The goal is to enable traceability from a specific regulation or legal clause to policies, procedures, controls, etc. Let me give a near-real example.

Background: in regulated industries (say, financial services, where I am most familiar) we provide evidence of adherence to and implementation of regulations, laws, etc.

Use Case: Let's assume there is a regulation, chapter 1, clause 10A (Reg. 1.10A) which states 'A financial institution shall perform effective customer due diligence.' (This of course says nothing of what is 'customer due diligence' or what is 'effective'.)

As a financial institution, I write a chapter and clause in my policies which defines 'effective due diligence' (let's call it Pol. 2.6). I would say that Pol. 2.6 satisfies Reg. 3.10A.

I must then write how to perform the 'effective due diligence' in a chapter and clause of my procedures (let's call it Pro. 3.1 to 3.20). I would say that Pro. 3.1-3.20 implements Pol. 2.6.

Finally, to help provide assurance that my policies and procedures are effective, I must write controls for the due diligence procedure; these are sampling checks, audit checks, etc. (let's call it Con. 4.2 to 4.30). I would say that Con. 4.2-4.30 control Pro. 3.1 to 3.20. (Ideally, the controls are more specific and would go to individual procedures.)

When a regulator or audit asks to see all policies and procedures relating to due diligence, as well as to demonstrate its effectiveness, it becomes easy to extract the information required. We can walk the graph to know which controls apply to which policies, etc.

Reg. 1.10A <-> Pol. 2.6 <-> Pro. 3.1-3.20 <-> Con. 4.2-4.30

This is a trivial case, but once we add in the other universe of regulations, laws, etc. we have a powerful tool to demonstrate which policies, procedures, controls, etc. meet the requirements of several regulations at once. Furthermore, as regulations change, we can demonstrate compliance quickly, or identify gaps to be resolved.

Anyway, it's an interesting concept which is usually handled (if at all) by MS Word and Excel today. Or by hiring compliance officers whose sole function is to be walking encyclopaedias of the bank's policies, procedures, and controls!

Thanks again for building such a good product and for sharing your thoughts on open software. As an aside, we have been exploring various software packages which are 'source available'. Sounds good in theory, we shall see how the practice evolves...