A.7:5.3 - MethodDescription vs Method vs Capability vs Work (description vs way-of-doing vs ability envelope vs occurrence)

• MethodDescription — one already identified claim-bearing U.Episteme whose exact C.2.1 EntityOfConcern is one admitted U.Method and whose claims, under its effective U.ReferenceScheme, say something substantive about that Method as a way of doing. A transformation or enactment concern, generic participant meanings, applicability, precondition, intended effect or preserved condition, bound, or internal method composition can satisfy the positive threshold. The labels algorithm, SOP, recipe, script, procedure, code, diagram, or design-time artifact are cues only. Authoring, revision, citation, publication, approval, or use time establishes neither episteme identity nor U.MethodDescription membership. Its publication cites A.10 carrier/source-currentness refs when the carrier is used as evidence or source.
• Method — the abstract order-sensitive way of doing, whose composition is governed by B.1.5. A Method is not an occurrence, description episteme, or system ability. Actual participants and operation values remain occurrence-side facts of separately admitted U.Work and its direct bindings.
• Capability — a named holder System’s bounded ability or envelope for a Work family or result class, stated with its operating and resource conditions, measures, qualification window, and currentness condition. Name a Method or system-role assignment only when that exact condition or fit input is current. It is not the MethodDescription and not the performed Work.
• Work — the dated run-time occurrence (what actually happened), with resource spend (Γ_work) and temporal coverage (Γ_time).

Designation, reference, and description are different. A Method identifier designates one exact U.Method under the applicable designation rules of an effective U.ReferenceScheme. A receiving claim’s methodRef separately resolves under its effective scheme to that same Method. Neither operation needs a MethodDescription. Cite a separate methodDescriptionRef only when that receiving claim actually depends on claims in an exact episteme edition that has already passed A.3.2 membership.

Minimally viable reference and membership case. Under MaintenanceReferenceScheme-2026, identifier PumpSealInspectionMethod designates exact admitted Method M-PSI. MaintenancePlan-47 is a separately governed U.WorkPlan; its methodRef = PumpSealInspectionMethod resolves directly to M-PSI, without a description hop. Episteme PumpSealInspectionGuide-e3 is independently identified by C.2.1 from its exact claim content, EntityOfConcern = M-PSI, and effective scheme. Its claims state the inspection precondition, ordered clean–inspect–classify way of doing, rejection bound, and stop; the same episteme therefore passes A.3.2 membership as U.MethodDescription. If MaintenancePlan-47 relies on those exact e3 claims, a separate methodDescriptionRef = PumpSealInspectionGuide-e3 may be cited. The plan, Method, MethodDescription, Capability and any later Work remain different objects.

Recognizable near misses. A catalogue row containing only PumpSealInspectionMethod designates or mentions a Method but is not a MethodDescription. A file named PumpSealInspectionSOP-v3.pdf supplies neither the C.2.1 episteme identity nor the substantive method claim by filename. methodRef = PumpSealInspectionMethod does not imply that a description exists. A newly authored, revised, cited, approved, published, or used episteme does not gain membership unless its exact Method EntityOfConcern and substantive way-of-doing claim satisfy the same test.

Normative guard: A MethodDescription alone does not establish that its Method was performed. Its claims may support a named claim only through the applicable evidence-use relation; never present Method or Capability as if it had happened; never define Method as Capability; never infer MethodDescription membership from form, label, lifecycle time, or use. Resolve direct Method designation and receiving references without mandatory description indirection.