| name | stress-scenario |
| description | What is the worst case? — Extreme condition construction and failure mode enumeration for risk preparedness |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| category | experiment-execution |
| type | strategy |
| sops | ["scenario-driver-identification","worst-case-construction","scenario-impact-assessment","robustness-scoring","scenario-synthesis"] |
| tactics | ["strategy-robustness-testing"] |
| dependencies | {"sops":["robustness-scoring","scenario-driver-identification","scenario-impact-assessment","scenario-synthesis","worst-case-construction"],"tactics":["strategy-robustness-testing"]} |
Strategy: Stress Scenario
Methodology
Stress Testing combined with Failure Mode Analysis. Deliberately construct extreme but plausible scenarios that maximally challenge the research approach. Identify breaking points, failure modes, and minimum conditions for viability.
Key principles:
- Extreme but plausible: Push parameters to edges without crossing into fantasy
- Failure-seeking: Actively look for conditions that break the approach
- Compound stress: Combine multiple adverse conditions (correlated failures)
- Recovery assessment: For each failure, assess whether recovery is possible
Execution Flow
-
Identify drivers → spawn scenario-driver-identification
- Input: research context, focus on threat vectors
- Output: vulnerability drivers and failure dimensions
-
Construct worst cases → spawn worst-case-construction (×3-5)
- Input: driver extremes, compound combinations
- Output: extreme scenario descriptions
-
Assess impact → spawn scenario-impact-assessment (per worst case)
- Input: stress scenario, research approach
- Output: failure mode analysis, breaking points
-
Score robustness → spawn robustness-scoring
- Input: all stress test results
- Output: stress robustness index, failure threshold map
-
Synthesize → spawn scenario-synthesis
- Input: stress scenarios, failure modes, robustness scores
- Output: risk report with mitigation recommendations
Budget Gate
| Step | Token Budget | Notes |
|---|
| Driver identification | 8K | Threat-focused |
| Worst-case construction | 12K × N | N = 3-5 stress scenarios |
| Impact assessment | 12K × N | Deeper analysis for stress |
| Robustness scoring | 10K | Failure threshold mapping |