HELMARK IN 60 SECONDS

What Helmark is, what it gives you and who it is for.

A one-minute overview of the standard before you read the full specification.

01

What is Helmark?

  • A public AI Delivery Governance standard for software teams.
  • A lightweight control layer added to your existing SDLC.
  • A way to classify AI involvement as NONE / ASSIST / CORE.
  • A way to scale verification using LOW / HIGH / CRITICAL component criticality.
  • A standard that keeps acceptance of software changes with a human owner.
02

What does it give you?

  • Visibility into where AI materially created software.
  • Clear minimum verification requirements.
  • Stronger control when AI produced the main result or component criticality requires it.
  • For AI-assisted work in scope, evidence of who accepted the change and how the required verification was performed.
  • At L3, a way to make loss of software understanding visible as AI usage grows.
03

Who is it for?

  • Development teams using AI assistants or coding agents.
  • Developers, QA engineers and Tech Leads.
  • Engineering Managers and Heads of Engineering.
  • CTOs and leaders responsible for AI-assisted software delivery.
  • AI governance, risk and compliance teams that need delivery-level evidence.

THE MODEL

For ASSIST and CORE, AI involvement + component criticality = minimum verification.

AI INVOLVEMENT NONE / ASSIST / CORE
+
CRITICALITY LOW / HIGH / CRITICAL
=
RESULT Required verification
R1

Responsibility for a change cannot be delegated to AI.

AI may generate, analyse, review and test. A human remains responsible for knowingly accepting the software change.

START SMALL

Begin with L1.

1. Add NONE / ASSIST / CORE.
2. Assign LOW / HIGH / CRITICAL defaults to significant components or areas.
3. Apply the minimum verification rules.

Read the Standard Explore Training