Democracy SMART-D Requirements Details — Data and Information Requirements V1

Purpose

This reviewer-facing page defines SMART-D details for the Democracy requirement group: Data and Information Requirements.

Phase Boundary: Requirements review only. Metrics scoring, report-card use, legislative mapping, issue grades, member grades, rollups, leaderboards, and action tools are disabled for this reviewer-facing page.

Color Rule

Red text = bad current value, bad trend, missing critical data, or unfavorable gap. Green text = favorable value or improving trend. Amber text = context-dependent, incomplete, or source-method review needed. Neutral/gray text = descriptive value that is not inherently good or bad.

SMART-D Requirements Matrix

RequirementMetric / MeasurementTop Countries / SourcesValue to the American PeopleGap / Target / Timeframe
DEM-DAT-001: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: The system shall maintain a Democracy source registry identifying each source, source owner, URL or location, dataset name, update frequency, metric mapping, data limitations, and review status.
Verification: Source registry CSV/JSON audit.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-002: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: The system shall prefer official government sources, authoritative nonpartisan datasets, academic sources, and reputable international benchmark sources.
Verification: Source review checklist.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-003: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: Each metric shall include source notes explaining what the data measures, what it does not measure, and any known limitations.
Verification: Metrics catalog review.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-004: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: Each Democracy metric shall include a data quality label such as Good, Watch, Info, Pending, Candidate, or Manual Review Required.
Verification: JSON schema validation, dashboard review.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-005: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: The system shall preserve historical metric snapshots to support trend analysis and avoid overwriting prior public records.
Verification: History file audit, snapshot selector test.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-006: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: Human-review data shall be stored in CSV or another maintainable review format that can be audited, backed up, and regenerated.
Verification: CSV review file audit, ETL import test.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-007: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: Report Card evidence records shall include source, date, bill/action identifier, member identifier when applicable, issue code, requirement mapping, scoring effect, confidence level, and reviewer status.
Verification: Evidence export audit.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-008: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: The system shall prevent stale data from appearing current by displaying source dates, refresh dates, and stale-data warnings when appropriate.
Verification: Stale data test, dashboard quality review.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.
DEM-DAT-009: Data and Information Requirements
Requirement: The system shall separate evidence collection and scoring logic from partisan conclusions, slogans, or unsupported claims.
Verification: Editorial review, scoring methodology audit.
Review Status: Draft / source-method review required
Current Metric: Candidate evidence completeness, data freshness, and source-traceability indicator set; source-method review required.
Current Value: Not yet approved for scoring.
Current Trend: Not yet approved for scoring.
Automation Feasibility: To be assessed during metrics development.
Trend Meaning: No trend should be interpreted until the source, formula, baseline period, and limitations are approved.
Source-Method Review: Required
Source families and approved datasets must be selected during source-method review before public scoring.
Comparator Caution: Democracy comparators are useful for context but should not be treated as one-to-one targets without method review.
Protects public trust by ensuring evidence is source-traceable, current, and labeled for confidence. Gap: No approved public baseline yet.
Target: Approved requirement text, approved metric candidate, source registry entry, formula, limitations, update frequency, and review decision before scoring.
Timeframe: Complete during requirements and metrics review before public report-card promotion.