Start with your responsibility. Read what matters.
Choose the role closest to your accountability area. Start with the essentials; follow the optional deeper reading only when your decision or work requires it. These paths are guides, not required steps.
Jump to your role
Select a role below. Each link takes you directly to its reading path.
How to use the paths: “Start here” is the shortest useful route. “Go deeper” is optional supporting material, not an extra compliance requirement. If you cover multiple responsibilities, follow more than one path.
CEO / Business Owner
Your question: Can I stand behind the information used for our most important decisions?
Start here
- Defensible Analytics — Recognize the business exposure.
- DACS Framework — See how accountability and evidence connect.
- DACS First Look — Choose one consequential decision to examine.
Go deeper when needed
- Where Defensible Analytics Matters — See where reliance creates business consequences.
Board Member / Board Risk Committee
Your question: What should management demonstrate before relying on high-impact evidence?
Start here
- Where Defensible Analytics Matters — Identify the board-level exposure.
- DACS Framework — Understand the accountability structure.
- Accountability Gates — See how restrictions and exceptions remain visible.
Go deeper when needed
- DACS First Look Example — Examine an illustrative management-level finding.
CFO / Finance Leader
Your question: Are our measures defined and supported for this financial decision?
Start here
- What is Defensible Analytics? — Understand the difference between a number and defensible use.
- Semantic Contracts — Examine definition, grain, authority, and permitted use.
- DACS First Look Example — See how a disputed metric changes a decision.
Go deeper when needed
- Accountability Gates — See how an unresolved failure constrains use.
- DACS First Look — Start with a bounded finance decision.
COO / Business Operations Leader
Your question: Can our teams use the same measures consistently across business processes?
Start here
- System of Information Management – SIM — Understand operational information responsibilities.
- How SIM and SIM-ZONEs Organize Information Readiness — Understand readiness boundaries across business activity.
- DACS Adoption Roadmap — See how to expand without an enterprise-wide launch.
Go deeper when needed
- Semantic Contracts — Clarify the meaning of shared operational measures.
- Accountability Gates — See when teams may proceed or must restrict use.
CIO / CTO
Your question: How can we use the systems and controls we already have?
Start here
- How Defensible Analytics Fits With Existing Data and AI Controls — See what existing platforms can contribute.
- DACS Operating Model — Understand the evaluation and readiness loop.
- DACS Adoption Roadmap — Plan bounded implementation.
Go deeper when needed
- DACS Profiles — Determine which additional controls apply.
- Accountability Gates — Connect technical evidence to permission to proceed.
- DACS Specification — Inspect the normative requirements.
CDO / Data Governance Leader
Your question: How do we make business meaning and evidence accountable for actual use?
Start here
- DACS Principles — Establish governing principles.
- Semantic Contracts — Bind definitions and use boundaries.
- DACS Profiles — Identify applicable control obligations.
Go deeper when needed
- System of Information Management – SIM — Clarify information management accountability.
- How SIM and SIM-ZONEs Organize Information Readiness — Separate different readiness contexts.
- Accountability Gates — See how evidence informs disposition.
- DACS Specification — Review the control language.
CAIO / AI Leader
Your question: When is AI output allowed to influence a material decision or action?
Start here
- DACS Framework — See how AI-supported decisions fit within the whole.
- How Defensible Analytics Fits With Existing Data and AI Controls — Locate the contribution of AI guardrails.
- DACS Profiles — Understand when AI-related obligations apply.
Go deeper when needed
- DACS Operating Model — Trace evidence, evaluation, and review.
- Accountability Gates — Distinguish control results from permission to act.
- DACS Specification — Examine normative requirements for material AI use.
Risk / Compliance / Internal Audit
Your question: What evidence supports a permitted action, and can we inspect it later?
Start here
- Accountability Gates — Understand disposition, restrictions, and exceptions.
- DACS First Look Example — See a bounded evidence assessment in context.
- DACS Specification — Examine the testable requirements.
Go deeper when needed
- DACS Operating Model — Follow control results into readiness states.
- DACS Profiles — Check control applicability.
- DACS Use, Licensing & Conformance — Understand the stated conformance and use boundary.
Enterprise / Data Architect
Your question: How do scope, identity, meaning, relationships, and controls fit together?
Start here
- DACS Operating Model — Follow the six-stage operating loop.
- System of Information Management – SIM — Identify management responsibilities.
- How SIM and SIM-ZONEs Organize Information Readiness — Define readiness boundaries.
Go deeper when needed
- Semantic Contracts — Bind authoritative meaning and permitted use.
- DACS Profiles — Match controls to scope.
- How Defensible Analytics Fits With Existing Data and AI Controls — Locate existing evidence producers.
- DACS Specification — Review formal control requirements.
Practitioner / Assessor / Implementer
Your question: What should I test, record, and remediate?
Start here
- DACS Operating Model — Learn the complete evaluation sequence.
- DACS Profiles — Determine which controls apply.
- DACS Specification — Use the normative requirements as the reference.
Go deeper when needed
- Accountability Gates — Record allowed and restricted use.
- DACS First Look — See how the initial assessment is bounded.
- DACS First Look Example — Examine sample findings and next steps.
- Semantic Contracts — Work through governed meaning and scope.
- DACS Adoption Roadmap — Place repeatable implementation in context.
Prefer to start with the business question?
If none of these titles fits, start with the question you need to answer.
- Can we trust this number for this decision? — Understand the evidence and scope problem.
- Who decides whether we may proceed? — Understand the recorded readiness decision.
- Can we use our current controls? — See how existing investments contribute evidence.
- What happens on Day One? — Understand the bounded First Look.
- What would a First Look produce? — Review an illustrative completed assessment.
For the complete system view, visit the DACS Framework. For publications, use the DACS Library.