A durable record for consequential choices, their context, rationale, consequences, and later replacements.
A choice affects scope, cost, risk, customer experience, ownership, timing, or a rule future work must follow.
The choice is routine, easily reversible, and creates no useful context for people beyond the immediate task.
DECISION — [Short active title] Status: [Proposed / Accepted / Rejected / Superseded] Date: [YYYY-MM-DD] Decision owner: [Name or role] Participants consulted: [Names or roles] CONTEXT [What constraint, evidence, or question required a decision?] OPTIONS CONSIDERED 1. [Option] — [Important trade-off] 2. [Option] — [Important trade-off] DECISION [One direct sentence stating what will happen.] RATIONALE [Why this option best fits the stated criteria and evidence.] CONSEQUENCES - [New work, accepted risk, dependency, or affected team] REVIEW TRIGGER [Date or condition that should cause reconsideration] SUPERSEDES / SUPERSEDED BY [Link if applicable]
The record should stand on its own. Include enough context to explain why a reasonable team made this choice without reproducing the entire discussion.
Record serious alternatives and the reason they were not selected. This prevents old debates from restarting as if no evaluation occurred.
When context changes, create a new record and link both directions. The historical sequence is part of the value.
