HCD.3:4.3 - Probe Before Declaring Capability Loss

When a prior qualified capability or result exists and the differential can change the next Work, use an applicable E.23.CAE disposition before declaring loss or prescribing more practice. Return to a qualified reference condition without further development where safe, vary the smallest decision-bearing condition, and observe applicability, access, adaptation, enactment, and result separately.

A recovered response weakens simple global loss but does not prove transfer. Failure across reference and target conditions may warrant capability-claim revision only after demand, configuration, support, and measurement rivals have been addressed. If the probe teaches, primes, fatigues, changes exposure, or cannot be run safely, narrow the conclusion or return an unresolved differential that states the observation limit and its effect on the conclusion.

For any new observation, record the evidence collector, holder participation, declared use, protected conditions, access and privacy boundary, and whether another owner must interpret the result. Treat an assisting System’s inference as decision input. Acting on it requires separately established authority for the particular action.