Editorial framework · Version 1.1Effective August 11, 2026
Software Fit Standard
Standard 1.1

Claim boundaries

Evidence has a hierarchy — and a limit

See how regulatory, vendor, documented test and secondary evidence support bounded software claims without turning publication into proof.

02

Evidence supports only the claim within its scope. A regulator can define an obligation; a vendor can document a feature; a reproducible test can show what happened in a stated scenario. None of those automatically proves the others.

Evidence order

  1. Authorities and standards bodiesRequirements, statutory definitions and formal technical standards.
  2. Official vendor documentationFeature scope, supported workflows, published terms and product claims.
  3. Documented reproducible testsObserved behavior in a named scenario, with setup and limitations.
  4. Secondary market sourcesDiscovery and market orientation, not the factual source of record.

A product claim is not proven compliance

A product page may say that a workflow supports FLSA, ACA, ESIGN, UETA, privacy, tax or PCI needs. The guide may report that published claim, but must not convert it into a legal conclusion without the corresponding authority and facts.

Unknown is a valid result

If documentation does not resolve a material edge case, the evaluation should tell the buyer what to verify during a demo, contract review or implementation test.