Template · 30 min read

Decision Record: how to initiate and complete decisions for teams

Joel Parker Henderson · GitHub Free Beginner

Your answer says 'write the decision, the reasoning, and who owns it in one place', and this is the copy-paste template for exactly that, with no tooling to buy. Drop the markdown file in a Google Docs folder or a /decisions directory in your repo and you have a lightweight decision log from day one. It captures the issue, the positions considered, the selection, and the implications, which is precisely what stops the same argument resurfacing every standup once you are past three people.

• A decision record is a one-page structured note (issue, options weighed, decision, reasoning, owner) that turns freeform Slack debate into a searchable log
• Deliberately tool-agnostic: keep records in a docs folder, your git repo, or a wiki, so there is zero adoption cost for a small team
• The written trail is what lets an owner decide fast and move on, because 'we already decided this and here is why' replaces re-arguing it