Lesson 14 of 19
Run an assessment
# Run an assessment
Learn how to review an assessment, create its reports and recognise the result. Checking the saved state helps you continue the same work without generating duplicate assessments.
This lesson concerns assessing artificial intelligence (AI) use. It does not instruct you to operate the AI tool being assessed.
At the end of this lesson
You can:
- follow the eleven assessment steps in order;
- distinguish saved preparation from the action that generates reports;
- recognise completed, pending, failed and blocked states.
Before you begin
You need no account or assessment attempt for the paper activity.
For workplace practice, you need the correct saved use case, its checked assessment basis and permission to edit its assessment. The basis is the saved information and versions selected for that assessment.
Editing follows an Accountable owner or Contributor assignment and the current assessment-editor state. A Reviewer can inspect permitted saved work but cannot edit it. Organisation administration alone does not grant assessment-editing rights.
Before generating real reports, check Organisation assessment allowance. You need available allowance. Generating reports reserves an attempt; reading this lesson or preparing answers does not.
Use Lesson 13 — Prepare an assessment, and Lesson 18 — Understand allowance and get help, before that action if needed.
Key ideas
A saved assessment keeps the use-case version and preparation captured when it began. Later changes elsewhere do not automatically replace that saved basis.
A report panel may be pending while you review the assessment steps. Advancing through a Business value or People and work step does not mean its report has been generated.
An assessment recommendation suggests a next step. A responsible person's permission is separate. Neither opening an assessment nor generating its reports permits a tool test or rollout.
Follow these steps
1. Open the correct assessment
Open Use cases, then the intended use case. Check the task and organisation before continuing.
Select Start assessment when no assessment exists, or Continue assessment when you can edit saved work. A read-only user may instead see View assessment progress. Completed work offers Open assessment reports.
Starting here can create a saved assessment draft. It does not itself reserve a report-generation attempt. Do not open a new assessment merely to bypass access or a failed request.
Result to check: the correct saved assessment is open, with your current permissions and progress.
2. Review the eleven steps
Each continue action saves that step before moving forward. If saving fails, resolve the message before treating the step as saved.
| Step | Check | Action and expected response |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Start your AI use case | Task, organisation and responsible person. | Continue to questions opens the recorded questions. |
| 2. Complete the use case record | Known answers, human responsibility and unknowns. | Review the use case record opens the summary. |
| 3. Confirm your use case | Purpose, people, boundaries and saved version. | Confirm and check policy moves to policy. Fixed saved fields cannot be rewritten here. |
| 4. Set your organisation's AI policy | Recorded policy position/version and Guidance depth. | Select Foundations or Implementation, then Check governance readiness. A missing policy remains a limitation. |
| 5. Check governance readiness | Gaps, conditions and any correction block. | Review the assessment plan proceeds when permitted. Follow a displayed correction action when blocked. |
| 6. Review the assessment plan | Included information, versions and reasons for exclusions. | Approve plan and start saves and advances the plan. This is not the report-generation action. |
| 7. Assess business value | Proposed benefit, baseline and pending/saved report state. | Continue to people and work saves the review and advances. |
| 8. Assess people and work | Affected people, capabilities and checking needs. | Continue to technology and data saves the review and advances. |
| 9. Assess technology and data | Information, supplier and technical questions. | Continue to risks and oversight saves the review and advances. |
| 10. Assess risks and oversight | Harms, safeguards and unresolved work. | Review the decision opens the final assessment review. |
| 11. Review the decision and next steps | Final basis, reviews and actual allowance. | Create assessment reports saves the final review and requests report generation. |
Readiness to assess is not permission to operate AI. Keep existing stop or hold decisions in force.
3. Correct the basis before generating
At the plan, check which information is included. Give a reason for each exclusion required by the flow. Excluding a file does not delete it.
If the saved task or preparation is wrong, return to the use case and correct the underlying records. For an editable draft, Review starting again explains how to use current records.
Only select Start again with current records when that is the intended correction. It preserves the previous draft but does not transfer unsaved changes. This is different from retrying failed report creation.
Result to check: the assessment uses the intended saved scope and information, or you have identified what must be corrected.
4. Check allowance before creating reports
Read the displayed assessment and attempt availability. If it is loading, unavailable or exhausted, do not assume a zero or unlimited allowance. Follow the stated reload or help action.
When authorised and ready, select Create assessment reports. The app saves the final review and requests server-side generation. The server checks permission, completed steps and allowance before reserving an attempt.
Despite its wording, Approve plan and start at step 6 does not reserve that attempt. Do not use the label alone to infer that reports already exist.
Result to check: a report-generation request was accepted, or the page explains why it could not start.
5. Recognise pending or failed creation
Creating assessment reports means the basis is saved but the result is not yet available. The page permits refresh to recover the same request.
Report creation did not finish means creation failed. When offered, use Try creating reports again for that saved assessment. A recovery request does not create a second assessment.
If a different error appears, use its supported recovery instructions. Do not promise yourself a refund or create duplicates to bypass allowance rules.
Result to check: the same assessment is completed, still pending, failed or blocked. Waiting alone is not proof of completion.
6. Open the saved results
After successful generation, the app returns to the use-case overview. Select Open assessment reports and check that the reports belong to the intended use case.
Confirm the five report views and read their basis and limitations. Continue to Lesson 15 before interpreting recommendations as permission.
Result to check: saved reports are available for the intended assessment, or a specific unresolved state remains visible.
Practise
Paper activity — fictional information
The selected basis is saved. The page says Creating assessment reports. The report result is not yet available.
Name the current state, what you would check next and why creating another assessment is inappropriate.
Check your understanding
Can you call the assessment complete while report creation is still pending?
Check your answer
No. It is pending. Follow the supported refresh or recovery route and check the same saved assessment for completed output.
Creating another assessment would not resolve that pending request. It could create duplicate work and a separate generation request.
If your answer treats pending as success, reread step 5. If it assumes step 6 already generated reports, reread step 4.
Check your work
You can:
- follow the eleven-step order and explain the information checked;
- identify Create assessment reports as the live generation/attempt boundary;
- distinguish completed, pending, failed and blocked states without claiming unsaved work succeeded.
The paper activity requires no real generation. Workplace practice is complete only when its actual saved or unresolved state is accurately identified.
Continue learning
Related lesson: Understand allowance and get help
Optional worked examples
Sources
These National AI Centre resources inform the lesson. This course does not imply Australian Government endorsement.