ME.4:1 - Problem Frame
Use this when. A methodology, standard, body of knowledge, maintained synthesis, reference model, or tool suite mixes reusable ways of doing with descriptions, Systems, capabilities, evidence, authority, and support. The receiving decision needs contributions from one package or several documentary sources, but their chapters and component lists do not establish Method structure.
Begin with one receiving decision and the exact source edition or snapshot. For several sources, keep each source’s role and recovery scope visible. Recover only contributions and dependency slices that can change the decision; completeness is relative to this boundary.
The first useful result is a source-traceable Method-recovery dossier. Identified Methods and individually scoped candidate accounts can proceed to ME.5 with their support and evidence limits. A proposed whole proceeds to ME.7 when its identity and relations are the question. Tools, descriptions, capability, authority, and other useful contributions remain available under their actual kinds.
Ordinary non-use. Do not decompose an already precise Method to populate a library or inventory material whose presence cannot change the receiving decision. If records, interviews, traces, or observations are offered as evidence from which a reusable way must be reconstructed, use A.3.1.MR; enter specialist ME.18 only when its additional evidence programme is needed. A document can contain both prescribed guidance and testimony about performance: route the selected contribution by its use, not by its file extension.
ME.4:1.1 - Working Distinctions
| Name used here | Meaning |
|---|---|
| documentary source boundary | The exact package, edition, snapshot, or bounded corpus from which the receiving use recovers claims. It establishes no Method whole. |
| documentary role | How this source may contribute now: for example, a current comparator, maintained synthesis, normative statement, historical account, Method claim, or worked example. These are source-use descriptions, not FPF kinds. |
| recovery profile | How much source-local recovery the use needs. It differs from what the source is evidence for. |
| dossier entry | One source-traceable contribution retaining its existing kind or ordinary unresolved status. |
| source meaning | What the selected source says or uses the contribution to do, before local adaptation or cross-source comparison. |
| bounded use | The receiving decision, scope, conditions, and claim for which the contribution is recovered. |
| decision-bearing relation | A direct relation whose truth changes whether or how the contribution can be used. |
| provenance-preserving dependency slice | The smallest set of source claims, descriptions, inputs/results, support, evidence references, and relations needed to judge one Method or candidate account. |
| navigation section | An open reading aid, such as “Methods and accounts” or “Systems and support”; membership creates no type. |
Heavyweight packages connect concerns through publication, pedagogy, institutional history, tools, or viewpoints. Their visible organization may differ from Method, Work, subject, description, capability/provider/support, allocation, or cultural structures.
Method Content Theory and design-Method element research contribute questions about goal, procedure, rationale, framing, mindset, representation, intended use, and tools. Keep the answers with the Method, candidate account, description, capability, support relation, cultural claim, or other subject they actually concern. Several sources can ask similar questions without giving the same answer.