# Terms

Terms used across this site, in alphabetical order.

| Term | Definition |
| --- | --- |
| **Approval gate** | A point where the system stops and waits for you to review and approve: after the first result, and after each iteration's direction |
| **Assessment** | A document stating where things are now (measured), where they should be, and the gap |
| **Deviation register** | The list of places where ASI OS departs from industry practice, each with a reason and an exit condition |
| **Document kind** | The category of a document, named by the question it answers and shown as the file-name suffix and the `type` field |
| **Decision** | A choice you have made, recorded with its context and consequences. In an activity it is an approved recommendation |
| **First result** | The smallest thing that can be judged and approved: a first document version or a prototype |
| **Gate** | A numbered stop inside a process (G1, G2) where a named document is submitted and the system waits for approval |
| **Guided intake** | The first stage: the system asks step by step for goal, scope, definition of done, audience, context and people involved, and writes the answers into the scope |
| **Handoff** | The point where one process ends and another starts on its result, recorded by a successor link |
| **Iteration** | One pass of the loop: propose the next improvement, pass a gate, build, check. Each process defines what one iteration changes (a slice, an article, a review round or a period) |
| **Kind catalog** | The list of document kinds, each with its question, stage, upkeep and front-matter block |
| **North star** | A short statement of the target a piece of work, or the platform, steers by. For one activity it is the goal in its scope |
| **Phase** | One of six groups of work types that share a route: Research and understanding, Design and creation, Build and delivery, Operations and upkeep, Planning and coordination, Knowledge and learning. Derived from the work type |
| **Process catalog** | The list of named work processes, each with its home work type and script. The only source of allowed `process` values |
| **Process step** | One numbered action inside a process. Belongs to exactly one stage |
| **Retrospective** | A document written when work ends or at a milestone: what was expected, what happened, why it differed, what to change |
| **Route** | The system's choice, after intake, of work type, phase, question set, first-result kind and build recipe |
| **Stage** | One of the five steps of the guided flow: intake, route, draft for approval, build, iterate |
| **Verification** | A document that restates the definition of done, says what was run or counted, shows the evidence and gives the result |
| **Work process** | A named, repeatable way of doing one kind of work: a fixed intake question set, an ordered list of documents, approval gates and an iteration loop, with one home work type |
| **Work type** | The value on an activity that says what kind of work it is. One of nine |

## Related pages

- [How work is organised](../start-here/how-work-is-organised.md) for stages, first result and iteration.
- [The process catalog](../processes/the-process-catalog.md) for work process, step, gate and handoff.
- [Phases and their routes](../work-families/phases-and-their-routes.md) for phase and route.