Recommendations

GOOD TO KNOW  This page autosaves — see Autosave & Drafts.

Field

What it holds

Title

A short name. This is what appears in lists.

Team Code

The assessment team raising it.

ISF classification

Three cascading pickers placing it in the framework.

PRO TIP  Write the Title as the action, not the problem — "Restructure night-shift handover briefs" rather than "Handover problems". A reader scanning a list of recommendations wants to know what is being proposed.

PRO TIP  Set the ISF classification before you go looking for evidence. The Search for Evidence tool uses the recommendation's Trait and Attribute to focus its results — classify first and the search comes back far closer to what you need.

Field

What it holds

Title

The recommendation's name.

Team Code

The team raising it.

Finding Choice

The finding this recommendation addresses.

ISF Framework, ISF Trait, ISF Attribute

Where it sits in the framework.

Problem Statement

What is wrong, stated plainly.

Evidence

The supporting material — see Evidence for Recommendations.

Other Insights

Supporting context that does not belong in the problem statement.

Themes

The themes it relates to.

Consequences

Checkboxes for the consequences of not acting.

Recommendation

The action proposed — "Describe the recommendation".

PRO TIP  Write the problem statement so it stands alone. Someone reading only this field, months later, in a different department, should understand the issue without the surrounding report.

HEADS UP  Keep the problem statement about the problem. Putting the solution here — and a different solution in the Recommendation field — is a common way to produce a recommendation nobody can act on.

PRO TIP  Set this deliberately. It is the traceability between what the assessment found and what it proposes — the first thing a reviewer checks when asking whether a recommendation is actually supported by evidence.

PRO TIP  Consequences are what turn a recommendation from a suggestion into a priority. Two recommendations can propose similar effort; the one with serious consequences ticked is the one that gets resourced.

HEADS UP  Tick only consequences you can genuinely justify from the evidence. Over-ticking to raise a recommendation's profile devalues every recommendation in the report.

GOOD TO KNOW  This is the right home for caveats — a finding based on a small sample, or a problem already known and being worked on.

PRO TIP  Make it specific enough to act on and be closed. "Improve communication" cannot be completed by anyone; "Extend the night-shift handover brief so the outgoing crew remains until it concludes" can be assigned, done, and verified.

HEADS UP  Recommend an action, not an outcome. "Reduce handover errors" is a goal; the recommendation should say what to do that would achieve it.

PRO TIP  Classify the recommendation against the same attribute as the observations that support it. That alignment is what lets a report reader move from a finding to its recommendation without hunting.

HEADS UP  Changing a recommendation's ISF classification after you have gathered evidence changes where it appears in reports and can leave the evidence you collected looking unrelated to its new classification. NSCAT warns you when you do this. Settle the classification early.

PRO TIP  Review all your recommendations together before the assessment closes. Assessments routinely produce three recommendations that are really one — consolidating them into a single, well-evidenced recommendation is far more likely to result in action than three overlapping ones.

HEADS UP  Write recommendations after the evidence is in. One recommendation per observation produces a long list of narrow actions, and the organization responds to volume by prioritising none of it.

PRO TIP  Fewer, better-evidenced recommendations get acted on. A report with five clear recommendations backed by observations achieves more than one with twenty.

HEADS UP  Finish recommendations before the activity is locked. A half-written recommendation cannot be completed afterwards without an administrator unlocking the activity.

What you see

What it means

No Recommendations group on the activity

You have no recommendation read access.

New Recommendation missing

Read access without write.

Fields visible but locked

Read access without write, or the activity is locked.

No Data Available on a classification picker

The level above has nothing beneath it in the ISF.

ISF Trait or Attribute empty

The level above has not been chosen — they cascade.

A warning about changing the classification

Expected. It affects where the recommendation reports and how its evidence reads.

The theme you want is missing

It does not exist yet. Ask an administrator.

Recommendation not appearing where expected in a report

Check its ISF classification.

Several recommendations saying much the same thing

Consolidate them into one before the assessment closes.