Request clock: state model

Show every state a request can be in, the event that moves it and the rule that allows the move. Then nobody has to guess what happens to the deadline.

When the rules about time are written, and before the requirements for the clock. Feeds: the clock requirements, the stories about deadlines and the date tests.

• List the states, each a condition rather than an action.
• List the events.
• Draw each transition with its event and its rule.
• For each state, say what happens to the deadline: it runs, stops, pauses, restarts or moves.
• Walk the worked examples through the model.

1. What moves the clock, and which rule allows each move? Answered in Transitions table, column "Rule".
2. What happens when a request arrives on a non-working day? Answered in Walk-through, EX-01; BR-19 and DEC-03: day 1 is the first working day after the date of receipt.
3. What is the difference between a pause and a restart? Answered in "Pause, restart, move": a restart makes the reply the new date of receipt (BR-23, BR-30), a pause stops the count and resumes it (BR-25).
4. Can a request be in two states at once? Answered in "Pause, restart, move", last paragraph: never, because each part of a request is in exactly one state (BR-08).
5. Where does each exit end? Answered in Transitions table: the rows whose To is End, from Left the process, Closed without response, Responded and With the Information Commission.

• Counting calendar days. You can spot it when a deadline comes out the same whether or not a holiday falls inside the count.
• Treating a clarification like a pause when it restarts the clock: the deadline after a reply is only a few days away.
• One model for two sets of rules where they differ: a transition right for one set and wrong for the other, with nothing on its label to say which.
• States named as actions, such as "Send reply": something could be "in" that state for no time at all.

• One model serves both regimes, and a transition that applies to one regime only says so on its label (DEC-03). Rejected: two models, which would repeat every state that behaves the same.
• "Awaiting fee" stays in the model, dashed. The law has it (BR-25, BR-38), and release 1 does not charge (DEC-02). Rejected: dropping the state, which would hide a rule a later release may need.
• An EIR request that is too general is refused under regulation 12(4)(c) in the letter that asks for particulars, sent within 20 working days of receipt (BR-30, BR-65). Regulation 14(2) counts the refusal's 20 working days from receipt, and regulation 9(4) from the day particulars arrive LAW SRC-03 reg. 9(4), 9(5)(c), 14(2). The regulator's short guide says no response is due until the applicant clarifies GUIDE SRC-06. OQ-09 therefore asks when the refusal is due if the particulars never come, and the fallback is on time under either reading OPEN OQ-09. Rejected: waiting for particulars before refusing, which is late if the 20 working days still run from receipt.
• The model follows each part of a request, not the request as a whole, because one request may need more than one regime (BR-08). Rejected: one state per request, which could not show EX-08.