1. Assign the decision
Name the person who accepts the system, the engineer who produces evidence and the owner of each requirement. Record the purchase or deployment scope being assessed, the deadline and the allowed exceptions.
- Give every requirement a stable ID and an owner.
- State whether each requirement is mandatory or advisory.
- Write the threshold and evidence source before looking at results.
2. Record the environment
Capture the agreed inventory and configuration so someone can understand what was tested. Avoid putting confidential hostnames, serial numbers or credentials into a public report.
- Hardware profile, firmware and driver versions; scheduler and workload versions.
- Compute, storage and network topology; expected transport and device mapping.
- Known changes, unavailable components and competing workloads during the window.
3. Authorize the test boundary
Separate read-only inspection from load, write or disruptive operations. Agree explicit targets and stop conditions.
- Identify reserved capacity and the maintenance window.
- Agree temperature, power, error and impact limits appropriate to the environment.
- Name the person who can stop a run and the recovery or cleanup procedure.
- Do not write to destructive storage targets or disrupt an unconsenting workload.
4. Preserve evidence and uncertainty
Retain the command or method, versions, timestamps, raw output and interpretation. A successful fallback transport does not establish that the intended transport passed.
- PASS: valid evidence satisfies the agreed requirement. FAIL: valid evidence shows it does not.
- NOT TESTED: the test did not run validly. INCONCLUSIVE: evidence is insufficient to decide.
- EXECUTION ERROR: collection or execution failed; report the fault separately.
- A missing mandatory diagnostic blocks an overall acceptance conclusion.
5. Make exceptions and retests reviewable
For each unresolved requirement, record the reason, impact, action owner and next decision. An exception needs the customer’s explicit acceptance authority. A retest records the changed configuration and links to the original finding.
6. Close with a decision, not a chart
The handover lists the evidence retained, mandatory gaps, accepted exceptions and operating responsibilities. Distinguish delivered assessment work from customer acceptance. A report may be complete while the system is not accepted.
Keep the original vision separate from test evidence
A decentralized GPU cloud is an origin vision, not proof that capacity is available or that a marketplace operates. Specify the actual owned or authorized environment under assessment. Never infer performance, reliability or customer readiness from a conceptual illustration.