When Engineers Go Too Deep: How Over-Engineering Hurts CMMC (and How to Avoid It)

One pattern we see across organizations preparing for CMMC is this: Highly skilled engineers often bring their natural problem-solving instincts into compliance work, which means going deeper in order to get things right.

But CMMC is not a deep-technical engineering exercise. In fact, that same instinct to optimize and perfect solutions can unintentionally expand scope, drive cost, and make audits harder than they need to be. Here’s why.

CMMC Is Assessed at the Requirement Level, Not the Technical Depth Level

CMMC doesn’t award extra credit for complexity. Assessors aren’t looking for a dissertation on encryption ciphers or a 27-page explanation of your firewall rules. They are looking for something much simpler:

• Is the requirement implemented?
• Is it implemented consistently?
• Can you prove it?

When teams apply deep technical rigor to CMMC controls, it can lead to:

• Building elaborate justifications that don’t map cleanly to the assessment objectives
• Introducing controls that are technically impressive but operationally fragile
• Creating documentation that becomes a liability during the audit

CMMC rewards clarity, repeatability, and evidence, not complexity.

Over-Engineering Expands Scope (and That’s the Real Danger)

Teams that dive deeply into the details may unintentionally widen the scope as a side effect.

We see this all the time:

• Bringing in systems that do not process, store, or transmit CUI
• Expanding boundary definitions unnecessarily
• Adding infrastructure because it “feels more secure,” even if it’s not required
• Overbuilding environments in a way that creates new assessment surfaces

This is the exact opposite of what successful companies do. Scope discipline is the #1 cost and risk reducer in any CMMC effort. CloudFit’s easyCMMC is built specifically around minimizing scope, not maximizing engineering effort. Sometimes, technical teams unintentionally do the opposite simply because they’re trying to be thorough.

The Audit Perspective: Simple + Verifiable Wins Every Time

Assessors follow a structured process. They don’t evaluate your network based on how smart the architecture is. They evaluate based on:

• whether your implementation meets the assessment objectives,
• whether you have documented processes,
• and whether you can produce evidence consistently.

A clean, simple, well-documented control is far easier to defend than a technically elegant but complex one. CMMC is fundamentally a governance and process framework, not an engineering showcase.

Why Engineers Do This (It’s Not Their Fault)

Engineering teams operate in environments where precision, depth, and optimization are essential. Their success is often tied to:

• optimization
• performance
• hard-to-build solutions
• technical depth

However, CMMC rewards:

• consistency
• repeatability
• clarity
• alignment with a standard

Those worlds overlap, but not as much as most teams assume. The result? Well-intentioned technical decisions can sometimes create compliance challenges simply because the goals differ.

How To Redirect Technical Teams (Without Losing Their Buy-In)

Here are phrases that work extremely well with engineering teams:

1. “Let’s keep the control at the control level.”

Engineers immediately understand staying within scope.

2. “Complexity increases audit surface area—let’s keep it simple.”

Nobody wants more to defend.

3. “We go deep only where the requirement forces us to.”

Engineers respect clear constraints.

4. “Simple and provable beats sophisticated but fragile.”

This reframes success using engineering values.

5. “The SRM and SSP define the boundary, not individual preferences.”

Centers them on the authoritative documents.

When positioned correctly, engineers become incredible allies in streamlining CMMC, because their problem-solving mindset is an asset when applied to clarity and consistency.

The Real Message: CMMC Isn’t About Technical Brilliance, It’s About Intentional Focus

The companies who succeed with CMMC have one thing in common: They stay focused on what the standard actually requires.

They:

• minimize scope
• keep implementations simple
• document clearly
• maintain consistency
• avoid unnecessary technical depth

And they get certified faster, cheaper, and with far less disruption. For organizations trying to balance security, compliance, and actual business operations, that’s the winning formula.

Closing Thought

At CloudFit , we spend a lot of time helping teams recognize this simple truth: CMMC is a maturity framework, not a technical challenge. The goal isn’t to build the most complex solution. It’s to build the most maintainable one.

If you keep scope tight, keep controls simple, and avoid technical over-engineering, you’ll move faster, operate with less friction, and walk into the audit with confidence. And if you need professional guidance at an affordable price, ask us about easyCMMC: A turnkey solution aiming to provide DIB contractors a CMMC assessment ready environment in 30 days.