Governance Stress-Tests are a method for evaluating whether a public institution is ready to operate a technology it is about to adopt.
The method begins with a concrete decision: a procurement, pilot, model update, digital public infrastructure rollout, compute subsidy, vendor renewal, or deployment threshold. It asks whether the institution can evaluate the system, retain authority, inspect evidence, provide recourse, learn from failure, and revise or stop the deployment before the technology becomes routine administration.
Impact assessments usually test the system. Governance Stress-Tests test the institution around it.
The output is a Revised Governance Decision: the conditions that must exist before the technology can be responsibly used.
Start Here
Read the three artifacts in this order.
- Governance Stress-Test ChecklistStart with the diagnostic tool: the six stages and the questions a public institution should be able to answer before deployment.
- Worked Example: Algorithmic Welfare EligibilityThen read the worked example: a reconstructive stress-test of Telangana's Samagra Vedika welfare-eligibility system.
- Governance Stress-Test Protocol NoteUse the protocol note as the methodological backstop: research modes, evidence treatment, case selection, claim ledger, and boundaries of the method.
The Six Stages
| Stage | What It Tests |
|---|---|
| 1. Decision Definition | Whether the decision, operator, affected parties, and claimed benefit are clear |
| 2. Capability And Control | Whether the institution can evaluate, constrain, and learn from the system |
| 3. Authority And Responsibility | Whether legal authority, operational control, and technical knowledge align |
| 4. Recourse And Learning | Whether affected people can contest outcomes and the institution can learn from failures |
| 5. Public-Value Constraints | Whether opacity and delegated authority are tolerable at the risk level |
| 6. Deployment Thresholds | Whether enough evidence and capacity exist before pilot, deployment, scale-up, or renewal |
Version 1.0
This first public version has three linked artifacts: the checklist, one worked example, and the protocol note. Future cases will test whether the same method travels across different technology decisions, including procurement, infrastructure, and public-sector AI deployment.
For the broader project, see Selected Work and Yukti.