4.4 Decision rights

Not every decision requires the entire team. Requiring consensus for minor choices wastes time, while allowing one person to make a major scope or interpretation decision can create conflict.

A charter can distinguish among:

• role-owner decisions, such as routine file organization within an agreed system;
• reviewed decisions, such as excluding a data field after technical review;
• team decisions, such as changing the central analytical question; and
• escalated decisions, such as unresolved confidentiality or stakeholder requirements.

The decision log preserves why a choice was made. This is especially important when a later result depends on an earlier definition, exclusion, or assumption.