Five Minutes: Record a Decision and Its Owner

Learning objective

Record what was decided, who had authority to decide and what happens next.

Your five-minute route

Allow about one minute for the idea, one minute for the worked example, two minutes for your own answer and one minute for feedback. Work at your own pace. These timings are estimates. Use a notebook or a document for your response; no answer is submitted and no account progress is recorded.

One useful idea

A decision record should make the choice and accountability visible. OpenProject’s decision-log guidance includes decision details, an accountable owner and the decision date. For this exercise, also record the reason, source of approval and follow-up action. A discussion or recommendation is not automatically an authorised decision.

Worked example

In a fictional team, two suppliers are discussed on Monday. The authorised programme lead approves Supplier B on Tuesday because it meets the agreed delivery constraint. The record should show Tuesday’s approval, the programme lead, the reason and the approval reference. A purchasing administrator who sends the order is the action owner; that does not make them the decision maker.

Check your learning

A fictional meeting ends with “We prefer a Friday launch, but the sponsor must approve it.” The coordinator is asked to request approval by Wednesday. Should the log say “Friday launch approved”? Write a more accurate status and identify the two different responsibilities. Write your answer before reading the explanation below.

Answer and explanation

No. Record: “Friday launch proposed; sponsor approval pending.” The sponsor is the required decision authority in this scenario. The coordinator owns the action to request approval by Wednesday. Add the eventual approval or rejection, its date and reference when received. Do not invent a decision date in advance or report a proposal as settled.

Use it in your work

Look at one decision note. Can another person find the choice, authority, reason and approval evidence? If approval remains pending, state that clearly and record the next action. Use your organisation’s actual authority rules; this short exercise does not replace them.

Completion check

You have completed this unit when you can explain the idea in your own words, compare your answer with the explanation and apply the same approach to one new example. If your answer missed a key point, revise it and try again. This is a practice lesson, not an examination or a validated assessment.

Sources and provenance

Further reading: OpenProject project-management guide: Appendix B.10, Decision log. The scenarios and answer explanations are original RDE teaching examples. Names, organisations and records used in examples are fictional. Reviewed 8 October 2026. Author: Jefferson Otonbara Imgbi.

Cover image: AI-generated illustrative scene created specifically for this resource.