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Record a decision taken outside Tollgate

Mode: how-to. Most governance decisions happen outside any governance tool — in a steering meeting, in a reply to an email, in a corridor. Where the decision-maker holds a non-Jira seat they cannot press Approve at all. Someone has to enter what they decided.

Tollgate makes that an attestation rather than a silent edit. You state who decided, when, and through what channel, and you attach the thing that proves it.

What you can attest to

Section titled “What you can attest to”

The same dialog records four kinds of decision:

What they decided Where you start Outcomes
A business case Record the sponsor’s decision — the primary action on Investment Health once you submit the case to an off-Jira sponsor Approved · Returned
A close-out sign-off Record the sign-off, once you submit close-out Signed off · Returned
A change request The change’s record action Approved · Rejected
A lifecycle act — entering, declaring or reopening benefits realisation The act’s own primary action Confirmed · Declined

Decisions in the Decisions register are not on this list. Attestation records an approval someone gave out of band, and nobody approves a decision — you log it directly, naming who made it.

Complete the record

Section titled “Complete the record”
  1. Outcome — what they decided.
  2. Decided by — the seat that decided. Fixed and read-only, so the record cannot name the wrong person.
  3. Date — when they decided, often earlier than the day you type the record.
  4. Channel — how it reached you: Email reply, Steering meeting, Conversation, Document, or Verbal — no artefact.
  5. Sponsor’s feedback — optional, except on a Return, which requires the notes the PM has to address.
  6. Evidence of record — see below.

Attach the evidence of record

Section titled “Attach the evidence of record”

Tollgate requires evidence unless you set the channel to Verbal — no artefact. Three forms exist, and you can add more than one:

  • Paste text — the email reply, the minute, the note, pasted in whole.
  • Attach file — up to 4 MB. Larger files go in the Confluence governance space. Link them instead.
  • Link a page or URL — a Confluence page, a document, a meeting record, with an optional label like Steering pack, 22 Jul.

Choosing Verbal — no artefact is a legitimate answer, and the record says so. It reads as weaker evidence than a pasted reply, which is the point. The register shows what each decision actually rests on instead of flattening every entry to Approved.

Who is named on the record

Section titled “Who is named on the record”

The record keeps two people apart and stores both:

  • Approved by — the person whose decision it was.
  • Recorded by — you, the person who entered it.

For a change request, every surface reads it that way: the register, both change logs and the governance exports name the approver first and you beside them.

For a business case, close-out or realisation verdict, the screens show the person who entered the record. The stored record still names both, and the governance export carries the attestation, so the audit answer is right even where the screen is brief.

Section titled “Related”