The Decision Inventory
List 15 to 25 decisions. Use actual examples from the past year. Do not list general responsibilities.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
Decision |
A choice with alternatives, owner, and consequence |
Trigger |
What causes the decision to arise |
Business outcome |
Revenue, customer, cost, risk, operation, or option affected |
Current owner |
Person who makes the final call in practice |
Required contributors |
People with evidence or execution responsibility |
Time horizon |
Immediate, quarterly, one-to-three-year, or longer |
Wrong-answer cost |
Delay, money, failure, trust, lock-in, or lost opportunity |
Future CTO right |
Own, share, influence, review, delegate, or narrow veto |
Escalation |
Threshold and final authority |
Evidence gap |
What the company cannot currently see |
Common decisions to consider:
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Product and market priority with technical consequences.
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Major architecture and platform choice.
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Build, buy, partner, or stop.
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Reliability and resilience investment.
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Material security, privacy, safety, or regulatory risk.
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Customer-specific commitment.
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Capacity between roadmap and foundational work.
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Vendor commitment and exit.
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Data ownership and AI use.
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Acquisition diligence and integration.
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Senior technology leadership appointment.
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Technology budget and capital allocation.
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Decommissioning and accepted debt.
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Public technical claim.
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Release or launch readiness.