What is a decision log?
A decision log is a running record of a team’s decisions, each with its date, who decided, why, and the options set aside.
How it works
Where an architecture decision record gives one technical decision a document of its own, a decision log keeps every decision, large or small, as a line in one place, often with a link to the fuller record.
It answers the questions that otherwise cost meetings: when did we decide this, who decided, and what did we know then?
An example
A launch team logs that it moved the date to 12 March on 3 February, decided by the product lead, because the payment provider needed two more weeks, and links the line to the revised plan.
Common mistakes
- Logging the decision but not the reason, so it gets reopened.
- Leaving decisions in meeting notes and chat, where nobody finds them.
- Never marking a decision as reversed.
In Nodary
In Nodary, a decision log can be a sheet in a document, or a live view that lists every decision document of a project as a table, filtered by its properties. Each decision can be reviewed and approved by a named person, and Studio AI can draft entries from meeting notes for you to check.
What Nodary does not do: it does not pick decisions out of chat or meetings by itself: someone writes them down, or asks Studio AI to draft them.
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