Glossary of HumanWox terms
The words HumanWox uses, and what they mean, with Governance Requirement, Obligation and Governance Action kept distinct.
The words HumanWox uses, and what they mean. Three terms are kept deliberately distinct: a Governance Requirement, an Obligation, and a Governance Action.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AI system | Any software or model that performs tasks typically requiring human intelligence, from a rules-based engine to a large language model. |
| Governance Record | Everything kept about one AI system: its profile, risks, controls, Governance Requirements, evidence, decisions, reviews, issues and Governance Actions. |
| Risk tier | An internal tier (critical, high, medium, low) for a system, based on its potential impact and degree of autonomy. It is your own assessment, not a regulatory label. |
| Autonomy level | How independently the system can act, from assistive to fully autonomous. |
| Human oversight | When and how people review, approve or override the system's outputs. |
| Risk | A potential harm associated with an AI system, assessed by likelihood and impact. |
| Control | A safeguard, technical, procedural or organisational, that addresses an identified risk. |
| Evidence | A file or record (a policy, a test result, an audit report) kept against your systems. Uploaded files are fingerprinted, so a version cannot change unnoticed. |
| Governance Requirement | Records what must or should be addressed for your AI systems, mapped to a framework clause, an internal policy or a buyer's question. |
| Obligation | A Governance Requirement with obligatory force: legal, regulatory, contractual, certification, or formally adopted policy. A questionnaire question on its own is not an Obligation. |
| Governance Action | The work required to respond to a requirement, a schedule, an event, an issue, a review or a decision. |
| Responsibility | Who is Accountable and who is Responsible for a record. One person is Accountable; others may be Responsible. |
| Applicability | Whether a question or a clause applies to you. A question marked Does not apply is counted as complete, not as a gap, and the reason is kept with the decision. |
| Readiness status | Where a questionnaire answer stands, worked out by the product: Ready to approve, Needs input, Needs a decision, Gap, Buyer to complete, Not applicable, or Approved. |
| Assurance Summary | The summary that goes with an export, listing each answer and the record items it cites, frozen as they were when approved. |
| Audit Trail | The authoritative record of who changed or approved what, and when, across your organisation. Any change after export is detectable. |