{
  "example_kind": "original synthetic manual planning case",
  "slug": "pilot-allocation-confounding-log",
  "title": "Record a process pilot's allocation context",
  "scenario": "Synthetic planning case: A process pilot assigns the old review protocol to three experienced operators and a new protocol to three new operators. Mean completion times are eight and twelve invented minutes respectively.",
  "layout": "protocol",
  "dataset": {
    "heading": "Inspect the invented case records",
    "headers": [
      "Pilot group",
      "Operators",
      "Experience context",
      "Mean toy minutes"
    ],
    "rows": [
      [
        "Old protocol",
        "3",
        "Experienced",
        "8"
      ],
      [
        "New protocol",
        "3",
        "New to workflow",
        "12"
      ]
    ]
  },
  "derivation": "Twelve minus eight equals four minutes descriptively. Protocol and experience change together, so the recorded comparison cannot separate their contributions.",
  "result": "The four-minute sample difference cannot isolate the protocol effect from operator experience. Preserve assignment context before deciding what the pilot supports.",
  "boundary": "The artifact audits process-pilot assignment before interpreting a group difference.",
  "limitations": "The six operators and times are synthetic. No significance, representative performance or causal effect is established.",
  "sources": [
    "nist"
  ],
  "tasks": [
    [
      "Record actual assignment",
      "Pilot owner",
      "Old/new protocol exposure is tied to different experience groups."
    ],
    [
      "Separate observation from attribution",
      "Reviewer",
      "The four-minute difference is reported with its confounding context."
    ],
    [
      "Choose the next evidence design",
      "Process lead",
      "A new documented comparison addresses experience context before attributing results to protocol."
    ]
  ],
  "faqs": [
    [
      "Can I call this randomized?",
      "No. The stated allocation follows experience group, not a documented randomized procedure."
    ],
    [
      "Is the pilot useless?",
      "No. It may reveal concrete operating problems, but it does not establish a causal protocol effect."
    ]
  ],
  "method_references": [
    {
      "id": "nist",
      "title": "NIST combinatorial testing",
      "url": "https://www.nist.gov/publications/combinatorial-testing",
      "scope": "Combination-coverage context. Invented review/state examples do not prove full fault coverage, certification or product behavior."
    }
  ]
}