Try to decide everything, and nothing gets decided.

In a customer-platform integration project run in parallel by multiple operating companies, requirements definition was approaching closure without approval criteria for moving between phases. Trying to lock the entire design at once would have been the wrong move. The scope was narrowed to the smallest point that had to be decided immediately, and a three-stage approval framework was drafted independently. Reviewers were separated into three layers — the field, project management, and management — rejecting the inefficiency of elevating every item to management.

The release decision was also redesigned from a single go/no-go call into four stages: release, initial monitoring, first monthly-close confirmation, and a declaration of stable operation. At each stage, approvers were deliberately placed asymmetrically according to where the substantive risk sat among participating organizations.

Approval is not a formality. It is placing judgment where the risk is.