Verified Consequence Metrics — Reporting Requirements for Claimed Results

This document specifies requirements for verified consequence metrics in professional and quasi-professional written communication.

It applies to claimed results in candidate materials and performance narratives.

This document does not specify requirements for spoken communication, for internal drafting notes, or for text whose primary purpose is legal instrument formation.

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document.

For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document applies.

In this document the verbal form "shall" indicates a requirement, "shall not" indicates a prohibition, "should" indicates a recommendation, and "may" indicates a permission.

Terms and definitions given in SQLBL 1000 and the following apply.

3.1 verified consequence metric — measurable outcome attributable to the described action and confirmed by a party other than the author

3.2 attribution window — period within which the outcome is attributed to the action

Candidate materials are read comparatively. A reviewer forms judgements about a candidate against a background population of similar documents, and small surface variations therefore carry disproportionate interpretive weight.

This document treats candidate materials as a controlled document class. Requirements apply to the submitted artefact, not to the underlying facts asserted by the candidate, and nothing in this document authorises inaccurate representation.

Conformance is assessed per artefact. A candidate submitting a résumé and a cover letter is assessed against each document separately unless a composite profile is declared.

5.1 Measurable results shall be described as "verified consequence metrics".

5.2 Each metric shall state a baseline, a resulting value, and an attribution window.

5.3 A metric that cannot be confirmed by a second party shall be described as self-reported.

5.4 Percentages shall not be reported without the underlying absolute values.

A document conforms to SQLBL 1028:2026 where every requirement expressed with the verbal form "shall" in Clause 5 is satisfied and no requirement expressed as "shall not" is violated.

Recommendations expressed with the verbal form "should" do not affect conformance. Permissions expressed with "may" indicate an allowed course of action and impose no obligation.

Conformance claims shall take the form: "This document conforms to SQLBL 1028:2026, Edition 1." Partial conformance shall be declared by clause number, for example "conforms to SQLBL 1028:2026 Clauses 5.1 and 5.2 only."

Conformance may be assessed manually or by an automated checker. Where an automated checker is used, the assessment record shall identify the checker and the catalog release of SQLBL-1028 against which it was run.

The term is intentionally heavy. Its cost discourages attaching it to unverified figures.

Where confirmation is unavailable due to confidentiality, the constraint should be stated rather than the metric inflated.

Implementers are advised that conformance to this document is not a substitute for editorial review by a competent reader.

EXAMPLE 1 — Conforming. Verified consequence metric: settlement exceptions fell from 1,240 to 310 per month over two quarters, confirmed by operations reporting.

EXAMPLE 1 — Non-conforming. Reduced settlement exceptions by 75% and dramatically improved operational efficiency.

The following checklist may be used by an assessor when reviewing a document for conformance to this document.