The Standards

A register of stewarded Standards

The Assay Foundation stewards a register of Standards — published methodologies against which AI implementation work is tested. The first is the IDEA Methodology. Others may be admitted over time, each contributed under the Foundation's governance and stewarded in the public interest.

iThe register of Standards

The institution is the assay office; a Standard is a fineness against which work is tested. The silver parallel is exact — sterling and Britannia are two finenesses, and the office tests against whichever applies. The Hallmark's Standard Mark, the oval, is what makes a multi-Standard regime legible at a glance.

IDEA · version III A four-gate methodology for evaluating AI implementation work across its full life, from the specification of what is wanted to the sustained operation of what was built.

One Standard is registered today. The register is built to admit more — an IDEA-Health, an IDEA-Public, or a separately-named methodology contributed by another party under its own Contribution Agreement — without diluting the Foundation's authority.

iiIDEA, the first Standard — its four gates

IDEA follows an Engagement through four conceptual gates, taken in sequence. Each gate asks one question; an Engagement does not advance until it is answered with evidence. The four together span the whole life of the work, from what is wanted to what endures.

I

Specification

Is the right thing being built, against measurable success criteria?
II

Implementation

Is it being built correctly, on fit data, with governance in place?
III

Test & Acceptance

Does it meet the agreed thresholds, independently verified?
IV

Operation

Does it continue to perform in production, over time?

iiiFour conceptual gates, seven operational

The four gates above are the conceptual frame in which IDEA is read. In operation the same sequence is expressed as seven escrow gates, numbered nought to six, set out in the Foundation's Trust Deed. Gate nought establishes the scope of the engagement; the remaining six map upward onto Specification, Implementation, Test & Acceptance, and Operation. The two framings describe one process at different resolutions, and are kept reconciled — they are never conflated.

The seven-gate schedule is what an Accredited Assayer works to, and what the Register records gate by gate for each Engagement. The four-gate frame is what a reader needs in order to understand what was tested.

Operational detail

The gate schedule, explained

The seven escrow gates, nought to six, and how they map onto the four conceptual gates of IDEA.

See the seven gates

The four gates

IDEA in depth

What each gate asks, and the evidence an Assayer looks for before an Engagement may advance.

Read IDEA in depth

ivStewardship and openness

IDEA is published openly. The methodology, its gate schedule, and its acceptance criteria are available to read in full, so that a buyer, an auditor, or a Practitioner can see exactly what a Hallmark attests to. There is no privileged version held back from the people the regime serves.

It is version-controlled. Each release carries a version — the Engagements on the Register record which version they were assayed against, currently IDEA, version III — so that the meaning of a Hallmark is fixed at the date it was struck and does not drift as the standard develops.

It is developed through public consultation. Changes are proposed, opened for comment, and reconciled in the open before they are adopted. Stewarding the standard in the public interest, rather than owning it as a proprietary asset, is what allows the Foundation to remain independent of the work it certifies.

vA short glossary

The regime's vocabulary is precise, and each term does real work. The principal terms are defined below.

IDEA: The Stewarded Standard against which an Engagement is assayed — a structured, four-gate methodology for evaluating AI implementation work across its full life.
Engagement: A discrete piece of AI implementation work, put forward for assay and, where it passes, entered on the Register with its Hallmark.
Assay: The independent test of an Engagement against a Stewarded Standard, performed by an Accredited Assayer with no stake in the outcome.
Hallmark: The four-part mark struck into an Engagement that passes an assay — recording who built the work, against what standard, certified by whom, and when.
Practitioner: An individual who does AI implementation work and stands behind it, registering a personal mark with the Foundation.
Accredited Assayer: A university, assurance firm, or qualified independent authorised by the Foundation to test Engagements against a Stewarded Standard and to certify the result.

What the Hallmark means See the Register