The PERISCOPE standard
A bearing is only usefulif you hold it when it is inconvenient.
These commitments decide what is allowed to leave the firm. They are the reason findings survive challenge, and the reason some examinations conclude with far less than the client expected.
Commitments
Ten rules, applied without exception.
Preserve the original
Received exactly as provided, integrity value recorded on intake, never worked on again.
Append, never overwrite
Corrections are new events that reference the earlier one. Nothing is deleted.
Examine the full population
Sampling estimates a rate. Investigation names records.
Test every alternative
A candidate that any reasonable explanation accounts for is closed, with reasons recorded.
Name the analyst
Every finding carries a person who examined it and stands behind it.
Review independently
Substantiation requires a reviewer who did not produce the finding.
Compute deterministically
Stated inputs, calculation version, population definition, reproducible to the cent.
Check for duplication
Overlapping records across findings are never counted twice.
State the limits
Scope, exclusions, custody completeness and what the work did not test are published in the report.
Govern model use
Models assist with extraction, timelines and drafting. They never calculate exposure or approve a finding.
Model governance
What a language model is allowed to touch.
Permitted, and logged
- Extraction from unstructured documents.
- Timeline assembly from preserved records.
- Narrative drafting for analyst revision.
Withheld entirely
- Final exposure calculation.
- Finding substantiation.
- Report approval and certification.
Every model interaction is recorded with its task, inputs, model and the analyst who accepted or rejected the result, so the assisted portion of any work product is always identifiable.