SYSE.39:4.3 - Compare whole-task alternatives

Compare retaining the current method, simplifying the task, removing the cause, improving the supported interaction, and automating the qualified operation. Use SYSE.25 when this intervention competes with other platform improvements; use SYSE.24 only when the question concerns whole ways of obtaining the result.

Keep the user result and conditions comparable. Include construction, maintenance, exceptions, support, failure handling and work transferred to users or other providers over a stated horizon. If the evidence does not discriminate the options, retain the unresolved comparison. Choose a bounded probe when its attainable result can improve the choice enough to justify its full cost and delay; use C.11.DUA when that judgement is unresolved. Otherwise give the present bounded answer and continue only work whose conditions are already supplied.

Use effort arithmetic where the units are comparable, but keep reliability, risk, waiting and lost opportunities visible rather than forcing every consequence into one score. A low-frequency task can reasonably remain manual when automation would add more total burden.