Section 40 of 105
39. Rule Criticality, Priority and Risk Classification
Stable section ID: S05-CON-014-SECTION-40 · 22 content blocks
Every Rule shall receive a classification reflecting the consequence of failure, urgency of implementation, and level of control required.
Criticality may include:
- C0 — Informational: No direct conformance obligation.
- C1 — General: Limited local consequence.
- C2 — Significant: Material effect on performance, maintainability, or interoperability.
- C3 — Critical: Serious effect on safety, major system function, or conformance.
C4 — Constitutional Safety-Critical: Potential for loss of life, major public harm, systemic failure, or invalidation of foundational architecture.
Priority shall remain separate from criticality. A highly critical Rule may already be well controlled and therefore not require urgent revision, while a moderate Rule may require immediate action because of widespread nonconformity.
Risk classification should consider:
- Severity.
- Probability.
- Exposure.
- Detectability.
- Reversibility.
- Propagation.
- Population affected.
- Lifecycle duration.
- Uncertainty.
- Availability of fallback or recovery.
Classification shall influence verification rigor, independence, evidence retention, change control, surveillance, and emergency response.
- A lower classification shall not be selected solely to reduce cost or certification burden.
- Classification changes shall be justified and preserved in the Rule history.