Concept dictionary
Output
An output is what a process produces — the result that leaves the process and goes on to another person, team, or system. An output may be a decision, a document, a scheduled appointment, a completed record, a reply to a customer, an invoice, an assignment, or a finished task. Something being an output tells you only that the process produced it, not that it is correct or final.
- Review state
- Reviewed in POC
- Freshness
- Current
- Version
- 4
Also called
- output
Remember it this wayWhatever leaves the process is the output. That it came out is not proof it is right.
In plain language
An output is what a process produces. It is the result that another person, team, or system receives or uses.
Why it matters
A process should be understood in terms of what it produces.
If the output is unclear, it is hard to judge whether the process is working.
Example
The output of an intake process may be a complete, assigned, and scheduled service request.
A chatbot-generated checklist is also an output. It may still require [[human-review|human review]] and [[verification]] before it is used.
Common misconception
An output is not the same thing as an answer. People routinely treat whatever a process — or an AI tool — hands back as the finished result, because it arrives looking finished: formatted, confident, complete. But "this is what came out" and "this is right, complete, and safe to use" are two different claims. Only the first is guaranteed by an output existing.
Related terms
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