Run Decision-Grade Data Science

Produce work that another person can inspect, challenge, rerun, and use for a real decision. Treat a model score as evidence, not as the deliverable.

Establish the decision contract

Before choosing methods, make the following explicit:

• decision or action the work will inform;
• entity and row grain;
• target or claim, including the positive condition;
• observation, prediction, and outcome windows;
• population, exclusions, and deployment context;
• success measures, business costs, and minimum useful improvement;
• constraints on data, latency, interpretability, fairness, or operations.

Infer reversible details when evidence supports them. Ask for a decision only when alternatives would materially change the target, evaluation, permitted data, or external impact. Record assumptions rather than repeatedly pausing for routine choices.

For a full gate-by-gate procedure and stopping conditions, read references/project-gates.md.