Decision Gate Standard v3.0

Decision Gate is a deliberate decision pause — a clearly defined moment in which a team, organization, or individual makes a conscious decision before committing time, resources, or attention. Decision Gate marks the moment when responsibility enters the system. It is not a process, methodology, or framework.

Decision Gate exists to ensure that actions are preceded by responsible decisions. Modern systems operate fast, scale quickly, and increasingly rely on automation — while often failing to ask: Should we do this? Decision Gate restores this question as standard practice.

Decision Gate is not backlog refinement, a review meeting, managerial consent, bureaucracy, or a compliance checklist. It does not prescribe solutions, manage projects, or evaluate execution quality. Decision Gate determines whether to act — and assigns responsibility for the outcome.

Apply Decision Gate when a decision: affects other people, consumes significant time or money, is difficult or costly to reverse (Reversibility Index 3 or above), scales beyond a single team, involves automation or AI, or changes user, customer, or employee reality.

Every decision subject to a gate must be assigned a Reversibility Index from 1 to 5. Where 1 is fully reversible at negligible cost, and 5 is irreversible with significant long-term consequences. The index determines whether a Full Gate or Fast Track Gate applies. See RI reference →

Decision Gate is applied before commitment. Commitment includes: starting execution, allocating resources, finalizing design or architecture, scaling a solution, or introducing automation or AI. A gate applied after commitment is a retrospective — not a Decision Gate.

Every full gate requires clear, specific answers to all four questions: Why? For whom? What are the consequences? Who takes responsibility? Any unanswered question closes the gate. See full question reference →

Decisions with a Reversibility Index of 1–2 may use a simplified gate: two questions, Decision Owner named, Decision Log entry mandatory. Does not apply to decisions affecting more than one team or involving AI deployment.

A full gate follows: (1) Name the decision, (2) Assign the Reversibility Index, (3) Answer the four questions, (4) Assess alternatives including doing nothing, (5) Assign the Decision Owner by name, (6) Produce exactly one gate outcome, (7) Record the decision in the Decision Log. See how it works →

Decision Owner — Named individual who accepts accountability. Without an owner, the gate stays closed. Facilitator — Ensures the process is applied with integrity. Domain Experts — Advise; the Decision Owner decides.

Each Decision Gate produces exactly one outcome: GO (proceed), CHANGE (adjust and return), PAUSE (wait for specific information), or KILL (close the initiative). See full outcome reference →

Every gate requires a Decision Log entry. A decision without a log entry is treated as a decision not made. Required fields: decision name, date, Decision Owner by name, Reversibility Index, gate outcome, brief rationale. The Decision Log is the organization's primary instrument of accountability.

Decision Gate is mandatory before deploying any AI system whose decisions carry significant consequences. A human must explicitly answer the four questions and accept responsibility for the outcome. Responsibility cannot be delegated to a model, a vendor, or a system. See AI Gate checklist →

Organizations may monitor Gate Health over time: the ratio of gated to ungated impactful decisions, the distribution of outcomes across GO / CHANGE / PAUSE / KILL, and the quality of Decision Log entries. Gate Health is not a compliance metric — it is a measure of organizational decision maturity. A healthy organization pauses deliberately. An unhealthy one pauses only after harm.