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3.17 · Evidenceexplainability
The ability of the system, or of the organization around it, to express the important factors behind a result in a way the affected person can understand.
What it means here
The ability of the system, or of the organization around it, to express the important factors behind a result in a way the affected person can understand.
ISO/IEC 42005:2025 treats explainability as an impact dimension with benefits and harms of its own.
How to use it
Match the explanation to the decision. An explanation the person cannot use is not transparency.
The term appears in the register wherever the distinction changes what a person must do. A policy that uses the word without the distinction is a policy that cannot be tested. The unit pages link back to this definition so the reader can check the meaning before signing a row.
The units that use it
Every unit in the register is written to be testable, which means the terms in it have to be concrete. Start with the register, then read the unit that carries the term in its requirement. If the term is still unclear after that, the row is not ready to sign.