MKT.8:4.3 - Choose a representation that exposes the live connection

Use the smallest form that makes the decision understandable. A short story can recover a sequence; a table can compare actors, conditions and evidence; a diagram can show alternative continuations or overlapping work. A graphical template is useful only if it preserves the distinctions needed here.

Make the meaning of the representation explicit. Identify the actors or activities represented by rows or nodes, what an arrow means, and how a reader can distinguish observed, reported, inferred and proposed content. An arrow for time order does not assert a cause; an arrow for a planned handover does not establish that the receiving team can perform it.

At each relevant connection, retain the following content in whatever form serves the reader:

• the activity or encounter and the participant concerned;
• the useful result or condition sought there;
• what is known about what occurred, with its relevant source and limits;
• the prerequisite, response or contribution needed for a continuation; and
• the party able to change that condition, or the fact that it lies outside the provider’s control.

Add reported experience or evaluation when the decision concerns it. Keep these separate from an observer’s account of performance. A long wait can be observed; whether it felt reassuring, frustrating or acceptable needs an appropriate account from the person. If recollection concerns the whole service, do not distribute that answer across individual contacts as though each had been measured.