Agentic Mesh · Decisions
2026The human decision model
The mesh distinguishes observations, proposals, decisions, exceptions and evidence so authority remains visible.
Transformation work becomes dangerous when draft content looks like an approved decision.
ETM4S4 therefore distinguishes several states:
- Observation: information captured from a source.
- Assumption: a belief requiring confirmation.
- Open question: missing information or authority.
- Proposal: a recommended course of action.
- Decision: an approved choice with an accountable owner.
- Exception: an approved deviation from a standard or policy.
- Evidence: traceable support for an assertion.
- Superseded: content retained for audit but no longer current.
Decision workflow
An agent can extract evidence, analyze options and create a proposal. It should also identify assumptions, confidence, consequences and required approvers.
The accountable human may:
- approve;
- reject;
- request additional evidence;
- modify the proposal;
- escalate; or
- grant a time-bound exception.
The decision record then triggers downstream agents.
Decisions that remain human
The exact boundary depends on risk, but ETM4S4 assumes human authority for material scope and process choices, architecture exceptions, security risk acceptance, production releases, quality gates, cutover and rollback.