Glossary

Decision memo

Also: Entscheidungsmemo, Decision record

A short structured document that captures why a decision was made, the options considered, the criteria and trade-offs, the stakeholders involved and the accepted risks. A good decision memo is auditable months later.

Readiness Score

Also: Decision Readiness Score, Confidence Score

A 0–100 score that quantifies how decision-ready a memo actually is. It breaks down into criteria coverage, evidence quality, risk analysis, stakeholder alignment and formal governance. A score above 70 signals audit readiness.

Entscheidungsinfrastruktur

Also: Decision Infrastructure

Die zweckgebaute Software- und Prozessschicht, mit der Unternehmen eine einzelne komplexe Entscheidung strukturiert, nachweisbar und auditierbar durchziehen. Keine Recherche-, keine Procurement- und keine Chat-Schicht, sondern die dazwischen.

NIS2 Art. 20

Also: NIS2 Article 20, Management body responsibility under NIS2

The NIS2 article that makes the management body of an essential or important entity directly accountable for approving and overseeing cybersecurity risk-management measures. Management bodies that fail this duty can be held personally liable.

DORA ICT risk management

Also: Digital Operational Resilience Act, DORA Art. 28, ICT third-party risk

The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act regulates the operational resilience of financial entities against ICT risks, with particularly prescriptive expectations around ICT third-party risk management (Art. 28) and contractual arrangements (Art. 30).

Defensible record

Also: Audit trail, Decision of record

A single versioned artefact that captures a decision in enough structure, with enough evidence and stakeholder context, that it can be defended under audit, in a board review, or 12 months later when the original team is no longer in place.

Stakeholder alignment

Also: Buying committee alignment, Decision alignment

The state in which every material stakeholder on a decision has a visible position (support, neutral, block), a named top concern and a documented next step. Without stakeholder alignment, decisions stall or reverse post-signature.

Audit-ready decision

Also: Audit-proof decision, Supervisory-ready decision

A decision whose record is structured, evidence-backed and stakeholder-signed to a level that a third-party auditor, a supervisor or a board reviewer can reconstruct the reasoning without interviewing the original team.