Recommendations

Overview — Turning Findings Into Actions

A recommendation is what the assessment says should be done. Where an observation records what you found, a recommendation states the problem it represents, the consequences of leaving it, the evidence behind it, and the action proposed.

Recommendations are the output the organization acts on — the part of the assessment that outlives the report.

Create one with Recommendations → New Recommendation on the activity's menu. Needs Recommendations access.

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

New Recommendation starts with the essentials:

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.

Once created, open it to complete the full record.

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.

The Full Recommendation

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".

Writing Each Part

Problem Statement

State what is wrong and why it matters. This is the case for the recommendation existing.

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.

Finding Choice

Links the recommendation to the finding it addresses.

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.

Consequences

A set of checkboxes describing what happens if the problem is not addressed. Tick every one that applies.

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.

Other Insights

Context that supports the recommendation without being part of the core problem — related findings, history, or things a reader should know.

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.

The Recommendation Itself

The action proposed.

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.

Classifying and Theming

The three ISF pickers cascade — Framework, then Trait, then Attribute. Themes tag the recommendation with the themes it relates to.

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.

Finding and Editing Recommendations

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.

From Observations to Recommendations

1. Record observations throughout the assessment, classified and themed.

2. Review the full set once collection is complete, looking for patterns.

3. Write recommendations against the patterns — not one per observation.

4. Link each to its finding, classify it, and tick its consequences honestly.

5. Gather the evidence — see Evidence for Recommendations.

6. Read them as a set and consolidate any that overlap.

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.

Common Problems

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.

Revision #2
Created 2026-08-18 19:52:44 UTC by Ashutosh Mody
Updated 2026-08-19 19:30:42 UTC by Ashutosh Mody