Decision Log Template
What was decided, why, and by whom — so it is not relitigated in month four.
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| Project | [project] |
| As at | October 14, 2026 |
| Date | Decision | Why | Decided by |
|---|---|---|---|
| [add one decision per line] |
A decision recorded here stands until it is superseded by a later entry. Reopening one needs a new entry, not an argument.
What is a Decision Log?
A decision log is a running list of the decisions taken on a project or in a team: what was decided, on what date, by whom, on what basis, and what was ruled out. It matters in month four, when someone new asks why the architecture, the supplier or the launch date is what it is. Without it, the question is re-argued from memory and often answered differently the second time.
Project managers keep one alongside the risk and issue logs. Engineering teams keep the same thing as architecture decision records. Boards and committees extract one from the minutes so decisions are readable without reading everything. Incident response teams log decisions as they go, because the timeline matters afterwards. The log is most valuable on work that lasts longer than people's memories or turns over staff, which is most work of any size and nearly all work that runs past a year.
What varies is what happens to the log later. If your organisation is a public authority, records may be disclosable under freedom-of-information legislation — the UK and US acts, India's Right to Information Act, Canada's access to information regime, Australia's FOI Act and equivalents elsewhere. Names and opinions about identifiable people are personal data under the privacy law that applies, so retention rules bite. Regulated sectors often set minimum record-keeping periods. Check your retention schedule before deciding how candid the reasoning column should be.
A decision log is not minutes, and it does not replace them where minutes are the formal record. It is not an action log either: the work that flows from a decision belongs in a separate tracker with an owner and a date. And it grants no authority — writing something in the log does not make it approved. The log records that a decision was taken by someone who had the right to take it, which is a different and much weaker claim.
What to put in a Decision Log
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Issuing organisation | For example: Maple Grove Homeowners Association |
| Organisation address | For example: 1420 Kinnear Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Project name | For example: Barton Road trade counter fit-out |
| Decisions | One per line: Date | Decision | Why | Decided by |
How to write a Decision Log
Give every decision a stable reference
Number decisions sequentially and never reuse or renumber. D-014 should mean the same thing in an email, a slide and a supplier conversation two years later. Record the date the decision was made, not the date it was written up, and give both where they differ. A log where entries can be edited without trace is worth less than one where superseded entries stay visible and marked.
Write the decision as an instruction
Record what someone should now do differently. 'Discussed hosting options' is a note that a meeting happened. 'Decided: host production in the EU region; existing data migrated by 30 November; no change to the test environment' is a decision. If the entry does not tell a new joiner what to do, it has recorded a conversation, and nobody needs a log for that.
Record the options rejected and why
The rejected option is the part that saves time later, because it is the one that comes back. Write the two or three alternatives considered and the reason each was set aside — cost, lead time, a licence restriction, a dependency. A sentence each is enough. When the question is reopened, the log tells you whether the original reason still holds or has genuinely changed.
Name the decider, not the meeting
'Agreed at the steering group' leaves nobody accountable and no way to check the decision fell within someone's authority. Name the person who made the call and the role they made it in, and note who was consulted. Where a specific approval was needed — a budget threshold, a data protection sign-off — record that it was obtained and reference where the evidence sits.
Flag reversibility and set a review date
Mark each decision as easily reversible, costly to reverse, or effectively permanent. That single field changes how much debate the next one deserves. Where a decision was taken on incomplete information, add the date it should be revisited and the new fact that would change it. Then keep the log where the team already works, because a log in a folder nobody opens is not a log.
Common mistakes
- Recording the discussion instead of the decision, so the entry cannot answer the only question anyone will ever ask it.
- Leaving the decider as a committee name, which makes it impossible to check whether the person deciding actually had the authority.
- Editing entries in place when a decision changes, destroying the history that explains why the current answer differs from the old one.
- Omitting rejected options, so the same alternative is proposed and re-investigated every few months by someone acting in good faith.
- Keeping the log in a private drive, so it disappears when its owner leaves and the project inherits decisions with no reasoning attached.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a decision log and meeting minutes?
Minutes record a meeting in sequence: attendance, discussion, resolutions. A decision log collects decisions across many meetings and channels into one searchable list, including ones taken by email or by an individual with delegated authority. In formal bodies the minutes remain the official record and the log points to them. The log exists because nobody reads twelve months of minutes to find one answer.
What should a decision log include?
A reference number, the date, the decision written as an instruction, the person who made it and in what role, who was consulted, the options rejected with reasons, any approval obtained, how reversible it is, and a review date where the decision was provisional. Anything more detailed is usually better held in the document the entry links to.
Who should maintain the decision log?
One named person — usually the project manager, team lead or secretary — with everyone able to propose entries. Shared ownership produces gaps, because logging is the first thing dropped in a busy week. Ten minutes at the end of each meeting capturing what was decided, while people are still in the room, keeps it accurate; retrospective reconstruction rarely does.
Are architecture decision records the same thing?
They are the same idea with a stricter convention. An ADR is a short file kept alongside the code, one per decision, with context, decision, status and consequences, and superseded records stay in place marked as such. If your team lives in a repository, that pattern works better than a spreadsheet. The important properties are identical: immutable entries, stated reasoning, visible status.
How long should decisions be kept?
For the life of the thing decided, and usually longer. A decision about data location or a supplier contract stays relevant well past the project that made it. Retention is governed by your own schedule and, in regulated or public bodies, by statutory minimums, so check those rather than deleting at project closure. Archiving the log with the project record is the usual answer.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.