A technology decision record that leadership can approve
A decision record should expose assumptions, operating impact and reversibility—not simply compare feature lists.
A useful technology decision record preserves the recommendation, rejected options, assumptions and conditions for revisiting the choice.
A useful technology decision record defines the boundary of the choice and the consequences the organisation is accepting.
Define the decision boundary
State the business constraint, affected systems, decision owner, deadline and what remains outside scope.
- Problem and required outcome
- Systems and teams affected
- Decision owner and approvers
- Deadline and forcing event
- Explicit exclusions
Compare consequences, not feature counts
Evaluate options against delivery time, operating ownership, security controls, data boundaries, cost horizon, supplier dependence and failure modes.
- Implementation and migration effort
- Operating skills and ownership
- Security and data constraints
- Three-year cost drivers
- Exit path and reversibility
Make approval conditions explicit
State why the option wins, which evidence is missing and which conditions must be met before commitment.
- Recommendation and rationale
- Rejected options and reasons
- Unresolved assumptions
- Approval conditions
- Review date and success measures