--- name: governance-audit-practice-db913b567b43 description: Use when conducting a governance audit — detecting semantic drift in governance constraints, inventorying governance debt, checking three-frame alignment, or when the governance-auditor agent needs methodology for deep investigation. --- # Governance Audit Practice The methodology for conducting governance audits. This skill guides the governance-auditor agent through semantic drift detection, debt inventory, and frame alignment review. It is also used by the `/governance-audit` command. A governance audit answers one question: **does the meaning encoded in your governance constraints still correspond to the reality they are meant to govern?** ## When to Audit - **Quarterly**: as part of the operating cadence (alongside `/assess` and `/harness-audit`) - **After significant change**: when the technology, process, or regulatory environment that governance constraints reference has changed substantially - **On suspicion**: when a team member notices that governance language no longer matches what the team actually does ## Audit Process ### 1. Identify Governance Constraints Scan HARNESS.md for constraints that encode governance requirements. A constraint is governance-related if it: - References a regulation, policy, standard, or compliance requirement - Uses governance language (fairness, transparency, oversight, accountability, compliance, safety, responsible, ethical) - Has a `Governance requirement` field in the extended template ### 2. Score Falsifiability For each governance constraint, assess falsifiability on a three-point scale: | Score | Meaning | Signal | | --- | --- | --- | | Falsifiable | Has specific verification criteria, defined evidence, clear failure action | Healthy | | Partially operationalised | Has some operational detail but gaps in verification or evidence | Needs attention | | Vague | Uses governance language without operational meaning | Governance debt | Apply the falsifiability test from the `governance-constraint-design` skill: can you answer what you verify, what counts as evidence, and what happens on failure? ### 3. Detect Semantic Drift For each governance constraint, check whether the meaning has drifted since the constraint was written. Use the five-stage drift model (see `references/drift-stages.md`): **Detection heuristics:** - **Implementation files changed**: if the code files that a governance constraint references have changed substantially since the constraint was last reviewed, drift is likely - **Process changed**: if the team's workflow has changed (new CI pipeline, new review process, new tools) but governance constraints still reference the old process - **Regulatory environment changed**: if the regulation or standard cited by the constraint has been updated - **Term meaning shifted**: if the team now uses a governance term differently than when the constraint was written Score drift risk as `low`, `medium`, or `high`. ### 4. Inventory Governance Debt Governance debt is a governance mechanism whose language no longer corresponds to the risk it addresses. Build an inventory: For each debt item, record: - **Description**: what the debt is (which constraint, what divergence) - **Severity**: how far meaning has drifted (minor wording gap vs fundamental misalignment) - **Blast radius**: how many other constraints or processes depend on the drifted term - **Score**: severity x blast radius (see `references/debt-scoring.md`) - **Affected constraints**: which constraints reference this term - **Recommended action**: rewrite constraint, update verification, or retire ### 5. Check Three-Frame Alignment For each governance constraint, assess whether the engineering, compliance, and AI system interpretations align: - **Aligned**: all three frames describe the same operational meaning - **Partial divergence**: frames overlap but emphasise different aspects (e.g., engineering checks code quality, compliance checks audit trail — both valid, but neither checks the other) - **Significant divergence**: frames describe materially different things (e.g., engineering implements a boolean gate, compliance expects substantive review) ### 6. Check for Debt Cycle Reinforcement The four-debt vicious cycle: - Governance debt → intent debt (governance language obscures purpose) - Intent debt → cognitive debt (teams cannot form accurate mental models) - Cognitive debt → technical debt (developers implement controls they do not understand) - Technical debt → governance debt (gap between language and reality widens) Look for governance constraints that reference other constraints which have their own unresolved debt. This is the cycle in action. ### 7. Produce Report Write the audit report to `observability/governance/audit-YYYY-MM-DD.md` with sections: 1. **Summary**: overall governance health score, constraint count, falsifiability ratio 2. **Constraint Assessment**: each constraint with falsifiability score, drift risk, frame alignment status 3. **Governance Debt Inventory**: each debt item with score and recommendation 4. **Debt Cycle Analysis**: any reinforcement patterns detected 5. **Governance Metrics**: the snapshot-format block for inclusion in harness health snapshots 6. **Prioritised Recommendations**: what to fix first, ordered by debt score ## What You Do NOT Do - Do not modify HARNESS.md constraints directly — report findings, humans decide - Do not guess at regulatory requirements — if a governance requirement field cites a regulation you are unsure about, flag it for human review - Do not score constraints you cannot read — if a verification tool is not available, note it as "unable to verify" rather than guessing --- Source attribution: Habitat-Thinking Original project: https://github.com/Habitat-Thinking/ai-literacy-superpowers/blob/a50b8136e8e170a828b7a61aa3e8815475b56bc9/ai-literacy-superpowers/skills/governance-audit-practice/SKILL.md License: Apache-2.0 License information: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub. ## Upstream license notice Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004 http://www.apache.org/licenses/ TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION 1. 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See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. # Mega AI Hub resource metadata Creator / publisher: Habitat-Thinking Original project: https://github.com/Habitat-Thinking/ai-literacy-superpowers/blob/a50b8136e8e170a828b7a61aa3e8815475b56bc9/ai-literacy-superpowers/skills/governance-audit-practice/SKILL.md Attribution basis: Source repository record Fields of work: Legal, Operations, Product Management, Project & Program Management Roles: Business Process Analyst, Compliance Officer, Operations Manager, Project Manager, Technical Product Manager Specialties: Specialty not specified Tools: Tool not specified Country applicability: Country not specified Classification basis: Source catalog labels Instruction SHA-256: 246eb319f9bd5c4a5f985ba7372b1e82cf2258871fc9f05b9bbc0a0b920348ab