SOP-005 — Phase-gate quorum & decision rules

Standard Operating Procedure · owner: Operations (Process Engineer) with the COO (tie-break + cluster readiness) and the CPTO (strategic gate assessment). Layer: SOP/Runbook (docs/canon.md). References: docs/methodology.md (the Standard Flow / five gates), ORG.md §COO Cluster, §CPTO Cluster.

Purpose

Make every phase-gate decision predictable, quorate, and time-boxed, so the venture advances on evidence — not on whoever happens to be in the room — and never stalls because a required sign-off is missing. This SOP defines, for each of the five gates in docs/methodology.md (Ideate → Plan → Build → Grow → Operate): who must sign off (quorum), the 48-hour decision SLA, what a gate verdict is, and how the COO breaks a tie when sign-offs conflict or the SLA lapses.

Scope

Applies to the four inter-phase gates the venture passes through — Ideate→Plan, Plan→Build, Build→Grow, Grow→Operate — plus the Operate→Ideate loop-back when needs evolve. The CPTO and Principal govern gate methodology integrity (docs/methodology.md); this SOP governs the operational mechanics of reaching a quorate, on-time verdict. It does not change what the gate’s evidence bar is — only how the decision is taken.

Flow

flowchart LR
  E["Evidence ready<br/>(Design Research<br/>+ deliverable)"] --> Q{"Quorum<br/>assembled?"}
  Q -->|no| W["Wait /<br/>chase sign-off"]
  W --> Q
  Q -->|yes| R["Reviewers vote<br/>within 48h SLA"]
  R --> D{"Unanimous<br/>advance?"}
  D -->|yes| A["Advance<br/>(Principal confirms)"]
  D -->|no / SLA lapsed| T["COO tie-break"]
  T --> A
  T --> H["Hold<br/>(named remediation)"]
  A --> Rec["Record verdict in the<br/>day's report Decisions"]
  H --> Rec
  classDef s fill:#1d4ed8,color:#fff,stroke:#1e3a8a
  classDef d fill:#0f766e,color:#fff,stroke:#134e4a
  class E,W,R,A,T,H,Rec s
  class Q,D d

Text fallback: Evidence ready (Design Research evidence + the phase deliverable) → Quorum assembled? (if no, chase the missing sign-off and re-check) → reviewers vote within the 48h SLA → unanimous advance? → if yes, Advance (Principal confirms); if no or the SLA lapsed, COO tie-break → either Advance or Hold with named remediation → Record verdict in the Decisions section of that day’s report (reports/<date>-report.md), and open an ADR (docs/adr/) only when the gate decision is architecturally load-bearing.

Quorum by gate

Quorum = the set of sign-offs that must be present for a verdict to be valid. Leads are taken from docs/methodology.md §Phases and ORG.md. The Principal confirms every advance; the CPTO owns the strategic gate assessment at every gate; the COO confirms operational/quality readiness where a COO-cluster Director is on the gate.

Notes:

• The Design Research Director supplies the evidence at every gate (docs/methodology.md); evidence absence is itself a Hold condition, not a vote.
• A sign-off is valid only against committed evidence — a reviewer voting without reading the deliverable does not count toward quorum.
• Formal gate reviews may use External Review Partners (360°) and /agents:review; their report is input to the reviewers, not a quorum vote.

The 48-hour SLA

Once evidence is ready and the gate is opened (quorum reviewers notified, via the Personal Assistant where the Principal is a reviewer), each required reviewer must return a verdict within 48 hours.

• The 48h clock starts when the last required reviewer is notified with the committed evidence in hand — not when the deliverable was first drafted.
• A reviewer who needs more time must say so within the 48h and name a new return time; silence past 48h is not an implicit approval — it triggers the COO tie-break path below.
• This SLA is the same one ratified in the 2026-05-31 C-suite audit for the Ideate gate; this SOP generalises it to all five gates.

Verdicts

A reviewer returns exactly one of:

The gate advances only when all quorum reviewers return Advance or Advance-with-conditions and the Principal confirms. Any Hold blocks the advance until resolved or escalated.

COO tie-break

The COO breaks ties; the COO does not override the evidence bar.

1. Trigger. The COO holds the deciding call when either: (a) quorum reviewers split between Advance and Hold, or (b) a required reviewer misses the 48h SLA without claiming an extension.
2. Read both positions from source (per the COO charter, Process B) — the deliverable, the Design Research evidence, and each reviewer’s stated rationale. Reconstructing from memory is not allowed.
3. Apply the governing constraint first. A Critical Security or Quality & Risk Hold is not breakable to Advance — these are second-line controls; the COO’s only move is Hold + named remediation + a deadline, or escalate to the Principal for the deciding call. The COO may break ties toward Hold freely; breaking toward Advance is permitted only when no Critical control finding is open.
4. Issue a binding call. State the decision, the governing rationale, what each party does next, and any condition under which it is revisited. Ambiguous rulings are not rulings (COO charter, Process B.4).
5. SLA-lapse default. If a non-Critical reviewer simply missed the SLA, the COO may proceed on the remaining quorum after one explicit chase; the lapse and the chase are recorded. A missed sign-off from Q&R or Security is never defaulted past — it escalates.
6. Record the tie-break in the Decisions section of that day’s report (reports/<date>-report.md) — and as an ADR (docs/adr/) if it is architecturally load-bearing — then reflect it in the next cluster status brief (reports/<date>-coo-cluster-status.md).

Boundaries

• The CPTO and Principal own gate methodology integrity and the strategic assessment; this SOP owns the decision mechanics only.
• The COO confirms operational/quality readiness and breaks ties — the COO does not author the gate evidence, the project plan, the audit, or the threat model (COO charter, Guardrails). Those remain with the named Directors.
• Spend implications surface to the Finance Director; rule gaps surface to Golden Rule (GR-3) — neither is decided at the gate.

Definition of Done (DoD)

A gate verdict is done only when:

• [ ] Quorum for that gate (table above) returned a verdict against committed evidence within the 48h SLA, or the COO tie-break path was followed.
• [ ] The Principal confirmed any advance.
• [ ] The verdict (Advance / Hold / Advance-with-conditions) is recorded in the Decisions section of that day’s report (reports/<date>-report.md) with date, parties, decision, rationale, and follow-ups — promoted to an ADR (docs/adr/) only when the gate decision is architecturally load-bearing.
• [ ] Any Advance-with-conditions items are logged with the Project Manager and a named close date.
• [ ] The outcome is reflected in the next COO cluster status brief and handed to the Archivist.
• [ ] Any Mermaid diagram validated (mermaid MCP) and carries a text fallback (per SOP-002).