/ablation-design

name: ablation-design
description: Design ablation studies to isolate component contributions in ML systems
version: 1.0.0
category: experiment-execution
type: strategy
sops:
- ablation-component-mapping
- baseline-selection
- metric-specification
- sample-size-estimation
tactics:
- statistical-method-selection
dependencies:
  sops:
  - ablation-component-mapping
  - baseline-selection
  - metric-specification
  - sample-size-estimation
  tactics:
  - statistical-method-selection

Strategy: Ablation Design

**Question**: What does each component contribute?

Methodology

• **Systematic Ablation** (Newell 1974): Remove one component at a time, measure degradation.
• **Replacement Ablation**: Replace component with simpler alternative to isolate contribution.
• **Combinatorial Ablation** (ABLATOR): Test component subsets to detect interaction effects.
• **Conditional Ablation**: Ablate components under specific data conditions to find context-dependent contributions.

Execution Flow

1. **ablation-component-mapping** → Map system architecture to ablatable units 2. **baseline-selection** → Select full-system and minimal-system anchors 3. **metric-specification** → Define metrics that capture component contribution 4. **sample-size-estimation** → Determine runs needed for reliable delta estimation 5. **statistical-method-selection** (tactic) → Choose appropriate significance tests for deltas

Budget Gate

| Ablation Type | Components (N) | Min Runs | When to Use | |---------------|---------------|----------|-------------| | Systematic (leave-one-out) | 3-8 | N + 2 | Standard component analysis | | Replacement | 3-8 | 2N + 2 | Need to distinguish "removal" vs "simplification" | | Combinatorial (selected) | 4-6 | ~2N | Suspected interactions between components | | Combinatorial (full) | 3-4 | 2^N | Small systems, need complete picture | | Conditional | 3-6 | N * conditions | Context-dependent contributions |

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Available Tactics

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

| Tactic | When to use | | --- | --- | | statistical-method-selection | Select appropriate statistical methods for experiment analysis |

Available SOPs

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

| SOP | When to use | | --- | --- | | ablation-component-mapping | Map system architecture to ablatable units for ablation studies | | baseline-selection | Select appropriate baselines for experimental comparison | | metric-specification | Define experiment metrics and significance standards | | sample-size-estimation | SOP: power analysis and required experiment count estimation |

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