Sectors / 04

Independent assurance for software used in decisions that materially affect access, rights, services, allocation, or public trust.

Independent software assuranceSM / 04.30

SecondMark position

Technical performance must be examined alongside decision authority, contestability, transparency, and the operational handling of uncertainty.

The examination is bounded to defined claims, a versioned system, and evidence that can be traced to the state under review. Any material exclusion or uncertainty remains visible in the conclusion.

01

Core questions

What the examination needs to establish.

  1. 01

    Which decisions rely on the system?

  2. 02

    Can affected people challenge or correct outcomes?

  3. 03

    Are limitations visible to decision-makers?

  4. 04

    Does the evidence reflect the populations and conditions of use?

02

Evidence model

Evidence is assembled around the claim—not the folder structure.

01

Domain-specific operating context

Collected, attributed, challenged, and connected to the exact system boundary under examination.

02

Authority and consequence mapping

Collected, attributed, challenged, and connected to the exact system boundary under examination.

03

Human and automated control points

Collected, attributed, challenged, and connected to the exact system boundary under examination.

04

Failure containment and recovery evidence

Collected, attributed, challenged, and connected to the exact system boundary under examination.

Intended outcome

A bounded technical opinion that makes system limitations and decision dependencies visible to public-interest governance.

Sector-aware assurance scopeMaterial risk and control analysisDecision-ready independent opinion
03

Professional boundary

What an opinion does—and does not—mean.

It provides

A traceable independent conclusion on defined claims, grounded in the evidence and system state examined.

It does not provide

A guarantee that failure is impossible, a permanent certification, or a conclusion beyond the stated scope and validity conditions.