Decision Frame
The structured problem definition that opens every governed decision session.
What it is
Decision Frame
DF-082 • Strategic"Should we shift 40% of our R&D budget from legacy maintenance to the new sovereign cloud infrastructure for Q3 2026?"
No head-count expansion
99.9% uptime on legacy
Beta release by Sept 15
Core churn < 2%
The Decision Frame is the first governed artifact produced in every session. It answers the question: what problem are we actually solving?
A well-formed Decision Frame prevents the most common failure mode in enterprise decision-making — anchoring on the first framing that gets voiced in a room.
Structure
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
decision_question | The precise question being decided |
decision_type | Classification (strategic / operational / tactical / reversible / irreversible) |
constraints | Fixed constraints that bound the solution space |
success_criteria | What a good outcome looks like |
stakeholders | Who is affected and who must be aligned |
timeline | When the decision must be made and when consequences land |
alternatives_considered | Other framings that were surfaced and why they were set aside |
Framing risk
The system scores framing risk as low, medium, or high based on:
- How quickly the initial framing converged
- Whether alternative framings were explored
- Whether success criteria are measurable
- Whether constraints are explicit or assumed
A high framing risk score triggers a mandatory exploration phase before the Decision Plan is generated.
Relationship to other artifacts
The Decision Frame is the input to the Decision Plan. If the frame is weak, the plan will be wrong — regardless of the quality of analysis applied to it.