The Third SR&ED Question

Now we get into the third question used by CRA in evaluating SR&ED claims. We covered the first two at http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/01/uncertainty.html and http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-second-question.html. The third one has to do with whether the overall approach taken to resolve the technological uncertainties reflects “a systematic investigation” and includes testing the hypotheses through “experiment or analysis”.  Today I aim to look at this question from an overview perspective, and in a subsequent post to examine it in more detail.

You can’t very well hypothesize how to resolve the uncertainties if you don’t know what they are. And you don’t know what they are if you have not identified your objectives. Further, you don’t know if your objectives are met unless you have standards or benchmarks against which you can measure your achievements. All these have to be determined and stated early in the project.

Once that is done, it is easier to identify a methodology of experimentation and/or analysis that seems suited to the resolution of the uncertainties and consequential achievement of the objectives.

Once the methodology has been used, it should be easy to identify the results achieved and to document them.