Practical guide · Jonathan Malchow Vega
What belongs in a useful decision record?
Capture a choice, its reason, supporting evidence, and the point at which it needs another look.
Write the choice as a sentence
A decision record should let a future reader identify what was decided, who had authority to decide it, and what happens next. “Discussed supplier” records an activity. “Allow a two-week test with public sample data only” records a bounded choice. Include what is outside the decision so a narrow permission does not become a wider one by repetition.
Worked example: a limited tool trial
This fictional teaching example is not a client case study. A small team wants to test a summarization tool. It considers no trial, a public-data trial, and a trial using internal documents. The decision maker allows public sample data only, with one named operator and a review after two weeks. No customer, employee, or confidential material is authorized.
Preserve the reason and uncertainty
The reason is that a limited trial can reveal whether summaries are useful without introducing internal records into the test. The evidence is a dated feature description and a small sample evaluation. Those sources do not establish how the service would behave with other data or workloads. The record identifies those limits rather than describing the trial as proof of safety.
Give the action to a person
Record the decision maker separately from the person carrying out the trial. The action owner gathers examples of omissions and misleading summaries. The review asks whether the test met its purpose and whether the proposed next step changes the data, users, or consequences involved. A larger trial would require a new decision.
Make the record findable
Store the decision with its source references and link it from the activity it governs. A future colleague should be able to find the applicable decision without reading every meeting note. Use the free worksheet below to record one bounded choice. Leave an unanswered field marked “unknown” and assign someone to resolve it.