How should an evaluation team scope a first escalation release?

Scope a first release around one question your team needs answered, not around everything escalation involves.

Decisions to make:

- **Domain and product.** One setting, such as business lending or claims settlement, keeps policies coherent. Add domains later. - **Tier depth.** Two or three reviewer tiers are enough to test routing, including the wrong-tier case. - **Policy complexity.** Decide whether the pack uses one clean matrix or includes superseded and conflicting documents. - **Case mix.** Specify the share of within-authority, over-authority and ambiguous cases, and whether paired boundary sets are needed. - **Senior reviewer behaviour.** Fixed rules, scripted replies, or an interactive simulated reviewer. - **Use.** Evaluation only, or evaluation and training. This affects licensing and how splits are held out.

Limits worth stating early: the output is generated and does not contain real business records; it informs but does not replace your own policy review; and it carries no regulatory approval. Coverage of unusual practices should be confirmed in a sample.

A useful first step is a small sample covering one product and two tiers, reviewed against your acceptance checks. Volumes, delivery arrangements and terms are agreed in the engagement, not assumed from this page.