Decision Management in Software Engineering

Every day we make a lot of decisions. I always wonder why, in so much companies, there is so little process to make them. We often make these decisions on our own, without any formal process, often without awareness. Worse yet, we do not document these decisions, their context nor their consequences. Then, a few months later, no one remembers why we choose a solution that might be absurd today in another context. This lack of decision management is very painful for your business.

“You are free to choose, but you are not free to alter the consequences of your decisions.”

― Ezra Taft Benson

In this article, I give you a framework for making better decisions by identifying the context and the consequences. But you will learn that it is not enough to make the right decision, because the context is constantly changing. The key aspect of decision management is to record all of these decisions in a decision log book. It allows the team to understand how they got there and effectively iterate over the previously chosen solutions to create a strong software product.

What is a decision?

A decision is the act of defining a solution for a given problem, in a current context.