Everyday AI · Module 7

Give every step a stop condition

Suggested time: 6 minutes.

A stop condition tells you when continuing would require guessing, permission or missing evidence. Without one, a procedure can produce polished work even when the input is unsafe or incomplete.

Use three review decisions:

• Accept as a checked draft: The requirements are met and known limitations are clearly shown.
• Revise before accepting: A repair can be made from the available evidence, such as restoring a dropped condition.
• Stop and obtain what is missing: Permission, necessary evidence or an authorised decision is unavailable.

These decisions describe the draft. “Accepted” does not grant permission to send it.

Not every blank stops the whole draft

Suppose the notes say an action is needed but do not name an owner. You can write “Owner not provided” in an internal practice draft if the task allows unresolved fields. You cannot assign the action to a convenient person just to fill the row.

If the task is instead “issue a final task assignment to the responsible owner,” the missing owner is essential. Stop until the responsible person is established.

A useful procedure therefore states both the missing-information rule and the output’s purpose. Our practice outputs may contain explicitly labelled unknowns. They must not contain invented commitments.

Worked stop decisions

• A note says “proposed” but the draft says “confirmed”: revise using the note.
• Two equally applicable sources disagree and neither has authority over the other: label the conflict and hold the affected conclusion for review.
• The pack is fictional, but a required page is missing: obtain it or narrow the output to the material actually available and disclose the limit.
• A real confidential file appears in place of the fictional pack: stop before entering it and return to the authorised practice input.

Pause: Why can “owner not provided” be acceptable in a draft but unacceptable as a completed task assignment? Keep your answer for the self-check.