# Sentinel Suite 1.8.0 — NCR and shared workflow

Built from the recovered 1.7.3 Company Management package. This is an installable release candidate: automated checks pass, but it has not been installed or verified on the production site. The live site's current plugin version has not been confirmed.

## Included

- NCR workspace: requirement, facts, classification, containment, correction, cause analysis, corrective plan, named owner and independent reviewer.
- Sequential delivery, verification and effectiveness review; evidence-based closure. Failed reviews can return to delivery with a reason. Reopening clears previous review results and preserves saved revision history.
- Links within the same assessment to audit findings, observations, obligations, incidents, investigations, change requests, Bowtie barriers, Assure controls and competence requirements.
- Raise/open an NCR from assessment audit findings, observations and obligations. Repeated use opens the existing linked NCR.
- Shared Actions and Action allocations; at least one completed linked corrective action is required before NCR verification. Any linked allocations must be closed. NCR includes entitlement to shared action effectiveness reviews, without granting other Assure features.
- Shared work queue across module navigation: outstanding assessment extension records, incident reports and actions, ordered by due date, with overdue counts and direct record links.
- Closed/under-review NCR corrective actions and allocations cannot be silently edited, deleted or detached. Return/reopen the NCR first.
- Existing company access, licensing, evidence attachments, optimistic revision checks and history are reused. No new database tables; old assessments migrate with an empty NCR collection.

## Scope and limitations

This release operates within an assessment. Company-level standalone observation/personnel registers are retained and are not automatically copied into NCR. Cross-assessment/company linking, automatic notifications, AI-generated risk assessments, RAMS, contractor management and permits are not added. Competence links reference existing requirements; they do not grant authorisation to perform work. The queue excludes terminal/approved records; those remain in their registers.

Verification: 115 JavaScript domain/UI tests and 406 isolated PHP checks passed. PHP syntax checks also passed. Automated Node/domain/UI tests and PHP 8.3 WASM tests use isolated WordPress/database stubs. These do not replace real WordPress/MySQL, browser visual, theme, mail or multi-user acceptance testing. Browser startup was unavailable in the build environment; no production publish is claimed.

## Upgrade and acceptance

1. Back up the production database, uploads and current plugin. Confirm its version and any custom changes; this package's baseline is 1.7.3. Preserve the backup before replacing anything.
2. On staging, upload the ZIP through WordPress Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Replace the existing `bowtie-sentinel` plugin; do not install alongside a renamed copy. Preserve the existing database and uploads.
3. Enable NCR in Sentinel Module settings and allocate NCR under Company products to the intended companies. Existing entitlements are deliberately preserved, not automatically broadened. Assign distinct company members with existing assessment owner/editor access.
4. Open an old assessment and verify its records remain. Raise an NCR from an audit finding; confirm the source link and that clicking again opens the same NCR.
5. With two real test accounts, follow the workflow in `docs/NCR-Guide.html`. Confirm owner self-verification is denied, open actions block verification, and an ineffective or premature outcome blocks closure.
6. Verify attachments, report/JSON export, shared queue, concurrent-edit conflicts and read-only/other-company accounts. Check desktop and mobile presentation in the site's actual theme.
7. After staging acceptance, deploy the same ZIP to production, enable the intended company allocations and repeat the smoke checks.

Rollback: before new NCR records are saved, restore the previous plugin and the matching backup if needed. After NCR data is saved, do not downgrade code alone: older releases do not recognise NCR fields and may drop them on save. Export/retain current data and restore a matched code/database/uploads backup as an intentional rollback.

## Developer verification

Run `npm ci --ignore-scripts` then `npm test`. Node dependencies are for verification only; WordPress does not need npm. Test and release source are included in this ZIP. `SHA256SUMS` lists all packaged file hashes, excluding the manifest itself.