Each facet is scored L1–L5. The institution’s overall placement is a floor-with-exceptions composite across the six.
01 · Ownership
“Who’s doing it?”
Every consequential decision has a named owner on the record.
See the five levels
- L1 — Initial
- Asked who owns a randomly selected decision from last quarter, the institution cannot produce a name without an investigation.
- L2 — Managed
- Owner-naming exists in pockets — BSA, credit committee — but not across operations, vendor management, IT, or customer escalation.
- L3 — Defined
- A written standard for who owns consequential decisions applies across workflows. The standard specifies what counts as consequential and how the owner is recorded.
- L4 — Measured
- The institution produces numbers against the standard. “96% of consequential decisions in Q3 had a named owner at the time of decision; the 4% gap was concentrated in operations and vendor decisions.”
- L5 — Optimizing
- The standard is updated based on where measurement reveals it is failing. Workflows the policy did not anticipate become workstreams that sharpen the standard.
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02 · Timeliness
“When are they doing it?”
Decisions close inside the cycle the work demands.
See the five levels
- L1 — Initial
- No cycle time measurement on consequential decisions. No defined start, no defined end, no infrastructure for measurement.
- L2 — Managed
- Cycle time is measured where regulators require it (BSA alert disposition, for example). Elsewhere it is absent.
- L3 — Defined
- A written standard specifies how cycle time is measured: what starts the cycle, what ends it, how timestamps are recorded, what SLAs apply by decision class.
- L4 — Measured
- The institution produces numbers on demand. “Median cycle time on consequential credit decisions in Q3 was 14 business hours; the 90th percentile was 47 hours, up 12 from Q2.”
- L5 — Optimizing
- When measurement reveals drift, the institution finds the structural cause and adjusts. SLAs themselves are revised as the institution learns where they were uncalibrated.
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03 · Reconstructability
“Can they prove they did it?”
Rationale and evidence captured as the decision is made.
See the five levels
- L1 — Initial
- No defined standard for what constitutes a complete decision record. Reconstructing a record requires assembling it from multiple sources.
- L2 — Managed
- Completeness practice exists in workflows with strong regulatory documentation requirements (SARs, board minutes). Other workflows lack it.
- L3 — Defined
- A written standard specifies what a complete decision record must contain. The specifics vary by workflow, but the institution-wide framework exists as policy.
- L4 — Measured
- The institution samples past decisions and reports against the completeness standard. “In Q3, 87% of sampled decisions met the completeness standard.”
- L5 — Optimizing
- The standard or the workflow is updated based on where records fall short. The recording mechanism changes, or the standard is corrected where it was over-specified.
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04 · Override Discipline
“Should it be overruled?”
Overrides are owned, justified, and pattern-visible.
See the five levels
- L1 — Initial
- The institution does not recognize overrides as a distinct class of decisions. Departures from defined dispositions happen, but no record practice or aggregation.
- L2 — Managed
- Some workflows recognize overrides — model overrides, credit committee exceptions — because the workflow’s structure forces it. Elsewhere, overrides are treated as ordinary operational events.
- L3 — Defined
- A written standard defines what an override is, how it is recorded, and what must accompany it. Applies wherever defined dispositions exist.
- L4 — Measured
- The institution measures override rates and outcomes. “In Q3, the override rate on the credit model was 8.3%; of overrides where the outcome window has elapsed, 73% performed in line with the override decision.”
- L5 — Optimizing
- The institution adjusts its underlying disposition mechanisms — refines the model, updates the policy, revisits procedural defaults — based on where overrides are patterning.
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05 · Authority
“Who has decision rights?”
Decisions sit at the level the policy says they sit.
See the five levels
- L1 — Initial
- No documented delegation matrix defining approval authority by decision type. Some authority is well-understood (board, SAR filings) but institution-wide practice is informal.
- L2 — Managed
- Delegation matrices exist where operations require them — credit authority, legal signing authority. Other workflows operate on informal structures.
- L3 — Defined
- A documented, institution-wide delegation matrix defines approval authority by decision type and threshold. Incorporates the relevant regulatory anchors (Reg O, SR 11-7, ECOA, BSA/AML).
- L4 — Measured
- The institution samples past decisions and verifies them against the matrix. Both failure modes — authority shortfall and authority excess — are visible.
- L5 — Optimizing
- The matrix is refined based on what measurement reveals about how it is actually being applied. Thresholds are recalibrated, roles are clarified, committee scope is right-sized.
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06 · Apex Linkage
“Did the outcomes justify the effort?”
Operational decisions feed strategic ones; the apex inherits.
See the five levels
- L1 — Initial
- A strategic plan exists, but it does not roll down to operational decisions in actionable form, and operational performance does not roll up to inform strategy.
- L2 — Managed
- Some strategic objectives connect to operational workflows. The linkage exists in pockets, not as a property of the institution’s strategy-to-operations practice as a whole.
- L3 — Defined
- A defined practice translates strategy into SMART goals that roll down to workforce, vendor, and operational objectives.
- L4 — Measured
- The institution measures performance against strategic goals at a meaningful cadence — typically quarterly. The underlying initiatives show measurable effect on the trend.
- L5 — Optimizing
- The institution adjusts strategy based on what the measurement reveals. Requires L4+ on every other facet as a structural prerequisite.
Read the full level definition →
