Proof Space Guide
Partial resolution
What is it?
A useful answer that keeps a material boundary visible.
A partial resolution settles what the available governed sources support and refuses to invent what those sources do not establish.
Here, the manager's approval boundary and routing order are settled. The employee's eventual outcome is not.
Organizational Reality
A request has enough information to answer part of the question, but not enough to decide the final outcome.
People feel pressure to give a complete answer anyway. That pressure can turn a useful boundary into an unsupported promise.
Why it happens
This commonly happens because organizations reward certainty even when the sources are incomplete. A governed partial answer protects the boundary instead of pretending it is settled.
How it relates
- SettledWhat sources support.
- UnsettledWhat sources do not decide.
- Next actionUseful without guessing.
A partial answer can still be useful when it protects what the sources do not decide.