Sub-function
Experiment Design
Owns protocol work end to end inside Research & Development. Runs 3 lines across 16 stations, drains the repeatable share into the C2L tower, and holds 4 human gates.
Estate rating
BBB
71 / 100
Protocol drafting and power analysis are agentic. Ethics clearance and scientific validity judgments are personally owned by a qualified researcher.
Agents
8
Lines
3
Units / wk
10,635
Timetable vs actual
22.3h → 19.4h
Cost / unit
$17
was $45
Run-rate saving
$15.7M
annualized at this volume
The 8 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Experiment Design Orchestrator
Owns the experiment design lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Research Methods when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Protocol Drafting Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of experiment design inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Research Methods when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Power Analysis Agent
Executes the experiment design step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Research Methods when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Control Design Agent
Executes the experiment design step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Research Methods when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Bias Detection Agent
Watches experiment design continuously. Detects drift, quantifies it, and routes what matters without waiting for a reporting cycle.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Research Methods when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Protocol Compliance Agent
Holds the rules that bind every other agent in experiment design. Versions them, tests them against live decisions, and blocks work that breaches them.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Design Policy Agent
Holds the rules that bind every other agent in experiment design. Versions them, tests them against live decisions, and blocks work that breaches them.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Experiment Design Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for experiment design. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Redeployed into agent supervision, calibration and coaching.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
Experiment Design Operating Position
Ratifiedv4Should protocol work stay in the shared transaction spine, or come back inside the function where the context lives?
Hold the ceiling at A3 for experiment design. Protocol drafting and power analysis are agentic. Ethics clearance and scientific validity judgments are personally owned by a qualified researcher. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
64%
The challenge — Experiment Design Challenger Agent
Experiment Design Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 3 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 16 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per protocol stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $6k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $333k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | not selected |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $1477k to build controls | Override rate is 7 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $284k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | selected |
Ratified 2 months ago. Measured since: cost per protocol fell 38 percent against a forecast of 37 percent.
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RD3-POL-200 | Experiment Design Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the protocol sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 3 agents · EU · UK | envelope | Protocol Compliance Agent | Director, Research Methods | v1.6 | Active |
| RD3-POL-201 | Experiment Design Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 3 agents · EU · UK · US | evidence | Protocol Compliance Agent | Director, Research Methods | v1.3 | Active |