define-criteria

Purpose

Derive explicit evaluation criteria from the research objective and candidate set.

Input contract

required: [research_objective, candidate_set, decision_context]
optional: [stakeholder_priorities, measurement_constraints, candidate_domains]
constraints: [criteria must be mutually interpretable across candidates]

Procedure

1. Extract desired outcomes and constraints from the objective.
2. Translate them into candidate-discriminating criteria with definitions and units.
3. Check completeness, overlap, direction, and measurability.
4. Return the criterion schema and unresolved measurement questions.

Output contract

produces: [criterion_schema, measurement_definitions, direction_labels, coverage_notes]
delta_fields: [findings, open_questions, uncertainties]

Quality gates

• Criteria count is between 3 and 12 unless caller explicitly authorizes another range.
• Every criterion has name, definition, unit, and higher/lower-is-better direction.
• Criteria are non-overlapping enough that double counting is documented.

Parameterization

Caller supplies objective schema, candidate schema, criterion count bounds, measurement units, direction vocabulary, and overlap policy.

Failure and counterexamples

Reject vague criteria lacking an observable measurement or criteria that cannot distinguish any candidate.

Provenance map

• resolved: criterion-definition
• concept: hypothesis-formation/scoring-matrix-construction (criteria-extraction core)
• resolved: hypothesis-formation-scoring-matrix-construction
• intermediate: Pass4/define-success-criteria

Preserved source criteria ledger

source	criterion
criterion-definition	Criteria count is between 3-12.
criterion-definition	Each criterion includes name, definition, unit of measurement, and direction (higher-is-better/lower-is-better).
convergence-scoring-matrix-construction	Normalization method matches the aggregation method.
convergence-scoring-matrix-construction	Sensitivity testing perturbs at least 3 weight parameters by +/-10%.