For decades, regulated industries have optimized for the wrong outcome. We measure data integrity, process compliance, and artifact completeness—but we never measure the quality of the decisions those artifacts represent.
Decision Quality changes the question from
"Did we follow the process?" to
"Did we make a defensible decision
with appropriate evidence and clear accountability?"
THE TRUST EQUATION
Trust = (Evidence × Authority) ÷ (Risk × Time)
Evidence
Not just data, but defensible reasoning. Not just test results, but demonstration of thinking.
Authority
Clear ownership. Someone with the competence and authority to make the decision accepting the consequences.
Risk
What happens if we're wrong? Patient safety, regulatory action, business impact.
Time
Trust degrades. Systems change, contexts shift, and yesterday's defensible decision may not be today's.
THE FOUR PILLARS OF DECISION QUALITY
Clear Decision Authority
Who has the authority to make this decision? Not just 'the team' or 'the process'—which specific person with the competence and authority to accept the consequences?
Appropriate Evidence
What evidence supports this decision? Not just that testing passed, but that the right testing was performed with understanding of what the results mean and what they don't.
Calibrated Risk
What could go wrong, and how bad would it be? Risk assessment that goes beyond generic severity ratings to specific consequences for this context.
Accountable Ownership
Who owns the outcome? When things go wrong—and they will—who takes responsibility for the decision and has the authority to make corrections?
WHY NOW?
AI is exposing what was never measured, never taught, never truly governed. Systems now make thousands of decisions per second. We can no longer rely on post-hoc review and human oversight.
The organizations that survive will be those that built Decision Quality into their operational DNA—not as a compliance layer, but as a competitive advantage.
"The storm is here. The question is whether you'll keep pretending—or start building Decision Quality."