The third category
Decision evidence
A consequential decision is not just an action, a model output, a workflow event or a control record. It is an organisational act.
To review it later, a reviewer needs to understand what evidence was available, what was relied upon, what authority applied, what conditions governed, what systems contributed, what judgement was exercised and what the organisation committed to.
A recorded action is not necessarily a reviewable decision.
What a decision-evidence record connects
- Decision-state
- The material evidence, authority, governing conditions, system contribution and judgement relevant to a consequential decision at the time the organisation committed to it.
- Execution boundary
- The point at which a recommendation, analysis or workflow result becomes a consequential organisational commitment.
- Point-in-time evidence
- Evidence captured at, or demonstrably applicable to, the execution boundary before later change or hindsight alters the available picture.
- Business authority
- The role, delegation, limits and approval state that gave the organisation authority to act.
- Human judgement
- Review, interpretation, override, approval or rationale exercised in relation to the decision.
- Organisational commitment
- The act and resulting financial, contractual, customer or operational consequence that binds the organisation.
- Reconstruction burden
- The operational work required to reassemble why a consequential decision was made after its original decision-state has fragmented.
- Replay path
- The references and retained artefacts that allow a reviewer to follow the declared decision-state later.
- Independent review
- A reviewer’s ability to assess declared structure, integrity, provenance and limitations without relying solely on the originating interface.