---
title: "Measure the Flow of Decision Making"
source: "https://virtualddd.com/heuristics/measure-the-flow-of-decision-making/"
authors: ["Andrea Magnorsky", "Andrew Harmel-Law", "Kenny Schwegler"]
tags: ["decision-making process", "decentralised decision-making", "facilitating software architecture and design", "sociotechnical systems"]
type: "design heuristics"
question: "How can we detect if our decision-making process has become dysfunctional or is being weaponised?"
submitter: "Andrew Harmel-Law"
---

# Measure the Flow of Decision Making

Apply flow metrics to the decision-making process itself to identify systemic issues like paralysis or weaponisation. Track metrics such as:

- **Decision Frequency:** How many decisions are we making per month?

- **Decision Lead Time:** How long does it take from identifying a need to making a decision?

- **Change Failure Rate:** What percentage of our decisions are quickly superseded or reverted?

- **Time to Restore:** How long does it take to recover from a perceived poor outcome of a decision? 

This quantitative data can reveal pathologies that are not obvious from individual cases.

## Example(s)

A team notices that decision lead times are increasing and the same decisions are being revisited repeatedly. By tracking these metrics, they can make a case that the process is creating paralysis, rather than just complaining about individual instances.