HCDI Foundation Certificate
Unit 1.7 - The governance principles the platform enforces
Learning outcome - Explain the controls a reader of an HCDI report relies on, and why each exists.
Source note
Source basis - S1, physical PDF page 18.
HCDI governance ruleHCDI governance rule and HCDI platform rule (Unit 1.7).
The public source identifies nine governance controls. The table summarises them. These are public control descriptions, not protected methodology mechanics.
| Public control | Source-derived explanation |
| A person scores | No model produces a score. The Adaptive Digital Inquiry proposes no score. |
| Reviewed recommendations | The Internal Reviewer approves corrective actions in English, then Arabic with an equivalence check. An AI draft is not an approved client statement. |
| No manual override | The public source provides no manual score adjustment, manual gate closure or control to force finalization. Urgency does not create an override. |
| Absence of evidence | An indicator without linked evidence cannot be scored. Not evidenced leaves every denominator and is disclosed; it is not a low score. |
| Evidence as data | Instruction-shaped text is detected and disclosed within the stated scanning scope. It is not obeyed. An uploaded statement does not gain instructional authority. |
| Two-person controls | Materiality criteria are countersigned. Segregation applies where stated. HCDI Compliance proposes status changes; a different Internal Reviewer confirms them. |
| Integrity matters | A Deal Lead or Reviewer records suspicion. For suspending kinds, work stops at recording. HCDI Compliance determines and closes; an Internal Reviewer confirms closure. |
| Evidence conflicts | Nothing issues while a conflict remains open. Only the Internal Reviewer resolves it with a note. The engagement team does not remove the problem through retagging. |
| Administrator access | Platform administrators have no standing content access. The source describes break-glass access as read-only, time-limited and logged. System administration does not confer assessment authority. |
Governance Boundary. Each of these is a control on a person or on the platform. None is a promise that an assessment is right. They are what makes it accountable. Common Error. Treating an Integrity Event as an accusation. It is a recorded concern that stops work until an independent party settles it.