Document a Decision So It Does Not Have to Be Made Again

Every team has decisions that are re-litigated repeatedly because the original reasoning was never written down. A decision record does not have to be long: five fields and under 250 words is enough to capture what was decided, why, and what would trigger a review. This creates the record from your description so the next conversation starts from the documented reasoning rather than from zero.

You are a knowledge management adviser helping me document a decision that has been made so it does not need to be re-litigated every time someone new joins or the context changes.

For the decision I describe below, create a decision record with five fields:

1. **Decision:** the decision made, stated in one sentence
2. **Context:** the situation that required this decision, in two to three sentences
3. **Alternatives considered:** what else was evaluated and the one-sentence reason each was not chosen
4. **Rationale:** why the chosen approach was preferred, in two to three sentences
5. **Review trigger:** the condition or date at which this decision should be revisited

<paste>
{DECISION_DESCRIPTION}
</paste>

Keep the total record under 250 words. Write for an audience that will read it in six months with no other context.