Learning edition: DAIS v3.7 Experimental · Saved assessments retain their own method version.

How this relates to the current assessment

The updated publication describes one bounded use case and the minimum item level in each domain. The existing assessment instrument currently calculates a lower median within each pillar; read the version and calculation in its result and exports. These methods must not be compared as if they were identical.

The self-hosted DAIS account workflow stores your assessment so you can save, resume, delete and export it. The source static preview’s browser-only privacy description does not apply to this account workflow.

The source offer describes an approximately 12-minute static survey. Allow about 20–30 minutes for the current account workflow, which also collects Data and AI health/impact context. Both are planning estimates.

04 · The adoption path

Evidence governs each adoption commitment.

Each use case progresses through explicit decisions. Evidence may strengthen the capability, redirect the design, pause commitment, or stop investment before assumptions become infrastructure.

ADOPTION WORKFLOW

Start with a business decision, then build the capability to support it.

Choose a bounded use case, test the riskiest assumptions and earn the right to operate. Below the diagram, open a phase for its work, responsibilities and outputs.

Orient & boundPriority → Assess

Work to do: Name the outcome and owner. Define the use-case boundary, baseline, data access and risks; assess current capabilities and identify the binding gap.
Client & ECV: The client sets priorities and supplies business, data and risk owners. ECV facilitates assessment and compares options, including non-AI alternatives.
Outputs: Use-Case Charter, current/target profile, evidence gaps and a bounded Prove investment for client approval.

Prove & buildProve → Build

Work to do: Test value, quality, cost and control feasibility against the baseline. If the gate permits, build the governed data, semantic/ontology, integration and AI capabilities.
Client & ECV: Client owners confirm requirements and acceptance criteria. ECV designs and implements; independent evaluation challenges the evidence before client approval.
Outputs: Value-Proof Report, Architecture Definition Pack and ADRs, governed contracts, evaluation and control evidence, runbook and Production Readiness Record.

Activate, operate & learnActivate → Operate → qualify expansion

Work to do: Start with an approved live cohort. Train users, monitor outcomes and costs, handle exceptions and exercise recovery. Qualify reuse only after sustained evidence.
Client & ECV: The client retains service, benefit and portfolio accountability. ECV supports activation and agreed operations under client-approved change control.
Outputs: Early-life and observation-window evidence, Benefits Register, recovery results and an approved next-wave backlog—or a controlled retirement plan.

The client retains ownership and approval. ECV supports delivery; it does not replace the client's decision authority. These three phases summarize the work—not maturity levels or substitutes for the seven lifecycle stages.

Read the diagram: lanes show collaborating roles; arrows show work and evidence handoffs. The illustrated Evidence Gate is not the only approval point: every stage exit requires a recorded decision.

Learning changes the plan: new use cases return to assessment and their earliest unmet gate. Retirement may begin at any stage; expansion is not automatic.

Review stage evidence & decisions →

SEVEN STAGES · DIFFERENT EVIDENCE

Select the commitment you are considering.

Each review uses Value, Workflow, Data, Risk and Evidence as appropriate to the transition. Record a reason for any omitted criterion.

BUILD · EXIT DECISION

Authorize the first production exposure.

Evidence to bring: Production Readiness Record, approved architecture and contracts, evaluation results, controls, runbook and rollback rehearsal.
Who decides: Service owner acting as Release authority.
Permitted next step: Authorize a bounded live workload. Required production evidence cannot be waived; a working demo alone is insufficient.

EVIDENCE · AUTHORITY · NEXT COMMITMENT

What authorizes the next step?

After identifying the stage and its evidence requirements, the named authority applies the same four-way decision model. Progress is authorized, not assumed.

Decision precedence: prohibition or unacceptable risk → Stop; missing required evidence or an external dependency → Hold; an owned, verified, remediable gap → Refine. Proceed requires all applicable conditions to be satisfied within approved exposure.

What belongs in the Gate Decision Record?

Use-case scope and transition; frozen targets; evidence links and results; current and target DAIS conditions; blockers with owners and due dates; legal/policy and overlay status; decision, date, named authority and approved exposure; any eligible early exception and its expiry; and dissent.

These are executive summaries of the roadmap. Detailed target sets remain provisional expert-designed requirements, strengthened by applicable law and client policy. A public readiness result does not grant release authority.

NEXT VIEW

ECV engagement aligns to the next bounded question and decision purpose.

Review the conversation routes →

Build evidence with the capability, not after it.

Use cases proceed, refine, hold, or stop through explicit human decisions. The path teaches how evidence can change commitment without treating progress as automatic.

Adoption workflow

Move only as far as the evidence supports.

Select Overview or a stage to inspect its decision, owner, evidence, responsibilities, and return paths. Every connection is available in the complete text list. Nothing here changes an assessment or saves a plan.

Skip diagram and read selected detail

Guided flowOverviewOverview · Play begins with flow 01 / 09

The guided tour starts automatically when this diagram enters view.

Overview. Read the full lifecycle as a series of human decisions, not automatic progress.

SelectedPriority

Adoption stage · node

Priority

Select one bounded use case whose outcome and constraints can be named.

Decision: Is this the use case the team is prepared to examine?
Accountable owner: Business or domain owner.
Inputs or source: A problem, affected workflow, intended outcome, constraints, and known unknowns.
Outputs or destination: A bounded use-case frame.
Control and evidence: Named sponsor, workflow, outcome baseline, affected people, and scope boundary.
Failure or uncertainty: If priority or ownership is unclear, refine or hold the frame.
D/A/I/S connection: Provides the shared context for D/A/I/S.
Permitted outcomes: Refine · Hold · Stop
Client responsibility: Name the priority, owner, workflow, outcome, and constraints.
Optional ECV contribution: Optional facilitation can challenge whether the frame is bounded and decision useful.
Next path: Move to Assess when the frame is clear.
Return path: Return here when the use case or decision boundary changes.

DESCRIPTIVE_ONLY · writeBack: false

Read the complete diagram as text

Blocks and stages

Connections

Educational boundary

This lifecycle is educational. DAIS records declared current conditions; evidence validation, proof, architecture selection, implementation, and human decisions are separate activities.

DAIS-owned Archify workflow schema v2 specification; public educational sidecar; no customer or assessment data.

One gate language

Evidence changes the commitment.

A named human owner makes the decision. DAIS does not choose an outcome.

Proceed

Evidence supports the next bounded investment.

Refine

The frame or design can close a material gap.

Hold

A dependency remains unresolved.

Stop

Value, feasibility, or control no longer justifies the path.