Decision Architecture Patterns

Books

A pattern language for decision systems: forty-two named, reusable structures for how authority, escalation and decisions behave inside organisations. The essays argue the thesis; the patterns name its moving parts.

This is the catalogue in card form. The full patterns, with worked context and consequences, are the subject of the Decision Architecture books.

Authority Patterns Behaviour Patterns Decision Interfaces Decision Objects System Patterns

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The core primitives of decision architecture

Organisations repeatedly generate the same decision objects regardless of industry or structure.

Authority behaves like a type system

Authority boundaries function like type systems preventing invalid decisions from entering the system.

Decision termination as a structural property

Decisions must have a defined termination point or they circulate endlessly through the organisation.

Organisational decision interfaces

Coordination improves when teams interact through defined decision interfaces rather than informal negotiation.

Decision circuit breaker

Organisations require a mechanism that halts cascading decision failure during crisis.

Decision half life

The value of a decision decays over time as context and constraints change.

Decision shadow

Informal decisions often exist in parallel to formal authority structures, shaping outcomes invisibly.

Decision gravity

Decisions naturally move toward centres of authority unless structurally distributed.

Authority Patterns

Decision gravity Authority revocation Decision quorum Authority lease Authority proxy Escalation chain Responsibility without authority as structural debt Authority follows the shape of the decision Authority behaves like a type system

Behaviour Patterns

Decision anchoring Decision saturation Decision bifurcation Decision entropy Decision inertia Decision shadow Decision half life Decision semaphore Decision drift detector Decision queue Decision circuit breaker Decision aggregator Optionality as a structural resource Decision load as a system signal The core primitives of decision architecture

Decision Interfaces

Decision aliasing Boundary guard Decision router Decision facade Decision adapter Organisational decision interfaces Escalation surfaces in organisational systems Decision surfaces and organisational interfaces

Decision Objects

Decision reversibility Decision compression Decision sandbox Decision cache Decision factory Decision termination as a structural property Decision objects and the shape of organisational systems

System Patterns

Decision observer Structural feedback loops in decision systems Decision architecture patterns in organisational systems