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research-document MS-MEASURES-2026-4C2A

Define valid outcomes for handoff reconstruction research

Identifier
MS-MEASURES-2026-4C2A
Research Area
handoff-measurement
Discipline
software-engineering, psychometrics, human-factors, decision-science
Status
completed
Version
0.1
Confidence
0.6
Priority
high
Updated
2026-07-22
Source
missions/completed/MS-MEASURES-2026-4C2A--handoff-outcome-measures.md

Mission

Objective

Define an outcome model and measurement protocol that distinguishes useful handoff engineering from attractive documentation or process theater.

Completion requirements

Construct validity, primary/secondary/harm measures, scoring and blinding, authoring and lifecycle costs, minimum practical effect, missing-data rules, counterevidence, follow-on work, roadmap impact, and engineering implications.

Completion record

  • Completed: 2026-07-30.
  • Summary: Defined a multidimensional, lifecycle-adjusted measurement model for the controlled handoff study.
  • Major findings: Safe continuation success under a predeclared accessible time policy is the provisional primary outcome. Critical harm is a separate non-inferiority gate. Efficiency, confidence calibration, coordination, accessibility, and lifecycle costs remain separate outcomes; they must not be hidden in a post-hoc weighted score.
  • Confidence: Medium. The construct is evidence-informed, but its scoring reliability and predictive validity have not been demonstrated.
  • Limitations: No task corpus, rubric reliability pilot, sample-size analysis, participant study, or full-execution validation was performed.
  • Remaining unknowns: Critical-error rubric, time window, practical effect threshold, reviewer agreement, expertise invariance, and whether plan success predicts later task execution.
  • Supporting references: EV-MEASURES-2026-11AF, EV-MEASURES-2026-5C7E, EV-MEASURES-2026-9D30, EV-MAINT-2026-0A52, EV-SAFETY-2026-19D5, and EV-SAFETY-2026-7EA2.
  • Follow-on research: Complete safeguards, define the baseline, pilot rubric reliability, and preregister the experiment before collecting treatment data.
  • Roadmap impact: Measurement is no longer the first dependency. Safeguards becomes the highest-value unblocked mission; baseline becomes second.
  • Other repositories: None presently. Cross-repository use requires separate task and risk validation.
  • Recommended engineering work: Do not implement a production evaluator yet. Create a blinded scoring fixture only after safeguards and baseline design.

Verification

The REP and supporting evidence are complete in review. Registry and repository validation are recorded in the repository handoff after execution.