Shared vocabulary

Glossary

A concise vocabulary for discussing evidence standards and the basis of consequential organisational decisions.

Evidence Standard
A published framework or specification defining how evidence is described, preserved or reviewed for a stated purpose.
Decision Evidence
Evidence linked to the basis of a specific consequential organisational act.
Runtime Evidence
Records describing what a system, agent or control runtime did.
Governance Evidence
Evidence describing an organisation’s controls, governance posture or operating environment.
Decision-State
The material evidence, authority, governing conditions, system contribution and judgement relevant to a decision when the organisation committed to it.
Execution Boundary
The point at which a recommendation, analysis or workflow result becomes a consequential organisational commitment.
Evidence Object
A source artefact or reference described with provenance, integrity and decision relevance.
Decision Envelope
A versioned structured record linking a decision to its evidence objects, conditions, authority, contributions, judgement, commitment and verification information.
Point-in-Time Evidence
Evidence captured at, or demonstrably applicable to, the execution boundary.
Evidentiary Continuity
The ability for decision-relevant evidence to remain intelligible as people, systems or organisations change.
Reconstruction Burden
The work required to reassemble why a decision was made after its original state has fragmented.
Reconstruction Gap
The difference between the decision-state available at execution and what can later be assembled.
Replay Path
References and retained artefacts needed to review the declared decision-state later.
Business Authority
The role, delegation, limits and approval state applicable when the organisation acted.
Organisational Commitment
The act and consequence that binds the organisation, such as accepting risk, paying a claim or proceeding under conditions.
Independent Review
The ability for a reviewer to assess declared structure, integrity, provenance and limitations without relying solely on the originating interface.