What Is Decision Provenance?
At a Glance
Decision provenance is the preserved record of the context, judgement and outcome associated with a decision, as they existed at the time the decision was made.
It supports explanation, review and accountability where decisions may later be examined or challenged.
This page provides a reference description. It does not provide legal advice or define compliance requirements.
Definition
Decision provenance is the preserved record of the decision context, human judgement and decision outcome associated with a specific decision, captured at the point in time the decision occurs.
It records what information was available, what constraints applied and how discretion was exercised, without relying on retrospective reconstruction.
Decision provenance is concerned with decision context and judgement, not merely with events, processes or system activity.
Why Decision Provenance Matters
When decisions are later examined by regulators, courts, auditors, insurers or internal governance functions, organisations are often required to explain:
- what was known at the time
- what constraints applied
- how judgement was exercised
- why a particular course of action was taken
In practice, this information is frequently reconstructed after the fact using records that were never designed to preserve decision context. Over time, records fragment, systems change and hindsight bias is introduced.
Decision provenance addresses this gap by preserving the relevant elements of a decision at the time it is made.
What Decision Provenance Is and Is Not
Decision provenance is:
- a record of decision context, judgement and outcome
- time-bound to the moment a decision is made
- concerned with explanation and evidentiary integrity
Decision provenance is not:
- a decision-making process or workflow
- an audit trail of system events
- a compliance checklist
- a substitute for legal, regulatory or professional judgement
It does not determine whether a decision was correct. It preserves what can reasonably be known about how and why it was made.
About This Site
decisionprovenance.org provides a reference description of decision provenance.
The material defines the concept, clarifies its boundaries and explains its relevance across legal, regulatory, organisational and AI-assisted contexts.
Further detail on scope, authority, method and versioning is set out in Purpose, Scope and Method.