Definition
The claim-to-evidence gap is the distance between what a tool, ticket, or person says and the evidence required to rely on that claim for a decision. It explains why more findings and more dashboards do not automatically create defensible release authority.
Closing the gap requires qualifying evidence by source, freshness, and corroboration before it can support a decision.
Why it matters
It explains why more findings and more dashboards do not automatically create defensible release authority. Organizations often have many claims and little evidence.
Example
A dashboard shows zero critical vulnerabilities. The claim is "we are clean." The evidence required is retest results, reviewer attestations, and policy evaluation. The gap is the space between the dashboard and those records.
Related terms
- Release-evidence verification — The practice of determining whether the evidence behind a software release decision satisfies versioned policy.
- Evidence ladder — A governed sequence of evidence states that prevents raw signals from being treated as proof.
- Decision record — The preserved explanation of a release or security decision, including evidence inputs, policy version, outcome, and reasoning.