PSDA.2:1 - Problem frame
Use this pattern when a decision-support inquiry either expands toward everything connected with the situation or excludes a concern, bearer, relation, horizon, or intervention family that could reverse the usefulness of the result. Use it after or alongside PSDA.1 when plural formulations imply different boundaries.
Choose the smallest boundary that supports the named receiving decision or Work, make consequential exclusions visible, and state how the boundary can reopen. The practical gain is an actionable scope without pretending that what lies outside is false, irrelevant forever, or unaffected.
Do not use PSDA.2 merely to decide whether one exact U.ContextSlice belongs to an already-declared U.Scope; use A.2.6 for that claim. Do not use it for generic document scope, organizational jurisdiction, a System boundary owned by a direct engineering practice, or a static project charter when no problem-structuring question remains. Return an unclear receiving question before setting its boundary; use PSDA.11 when the missing question concerns a professional engagement.
PSDA.2:1.1 - Working Distinctions
| Working term | Meaning in this pattern |
|---|---|
| engagement boundary | The PSDA.11 boundary around the decision-support return, recipient, subject, horizon, receiving use, and authority. |
| problem boundary | The provisional cut that determines which formulations, bearers, concerns, relations, conditions, horizons, evidence, and intervention families are treated as material now. |
| material exclusion | An omitted or deferred item that could change the current result and therefore must remain visible with a reason, uncertainty, and reopen condition. |
| usable scope | The smallest current problem boundary adequate for a named next result and its assurance burden. It need not be exhaustive or permanent. |
| reopen basis | An observable change or newly recoverable value that can make the current boundary too narrow, too broad, or otherwise unfit for the receiving use. |
U.Scope | A declared scope for exact U.ContextSlice membership, governed by A.2.6. An ordinary problem boundary need not be reified as one. |
Every formulation makes a cut. It foregrounds some participants, Systems, concerns, causal or modal paths, operating conditions, time horizons, evidence, and intervention families while leaving others outside. In ill-structured situations those cuts are often contested and revisable rather than simply discovered.
The primary concern is not to find the one true perimeter. It is to choose and expose a boundary adequate for one receiving use while preserving the exclusions and observations that could require revision. Recognition can begin with one plausible boundary reversal. Consequential inclusion, exclusion, relation, harm, authority, legal, ethical, safety, or factual claims retain their direct assurance.