Decision Record

Context

The project charter prohibited assuming the discipline boundary. Twelve adjacent bodies were mapped against the proposed capabilities.

Decision

Reject “Communication Engineering” as a distinct scientific or engineering discipline at review stage. Permit “experimental software communication-assurance profile” as a noncanonical project description only when it explicitly means a combination of existing methods and remains subject to comparative validation.

Evidence

RP-BOUNDARY-2026-5A7C and its claim-by-field coverage matrix. No exclusive object, mechanism, method, or prediction was found.

Alternatives

• Accept a new discipline: rejected as unsupported.
• Accept an established integration profile immediately: rejected because no incremental outcome or cost evidence exists.
• Abandon all integration work: rejected because a lightweight profile may still reduce method-selection cost.

Consequences

Repository language must not imply disciplinary validation. Research should target incremental utility, not novelty. Existing field terminology should be used for individual methods.

Reversibility and revisit trigger

Reversible. Revisit only if a replicated comparative study shows an exclusive mechanism or meaningful incremental outcome that cannot be explained by the component fields.