Review workflow

Deciders and reviewers

When you request a review you assign each person a role. Deciders approve, request changes or reject. Reviewers give input and can ask for changes but do not decide. A decision needs at least one decider.

Deadline and default outcome

You set one deadline for the review and choose what happens when it passes:

• Accept the decision, unless a decider has raised an objection.
• Reject the decision.
• Extend the deadline by a set number of days, up to two times. After that the review is escalated to the author.

When the default applies, the review records that it did, with the reason, so the history never shows a decision that appeared from nowhere.

Nudges

Reviewers get an in-app notification before the deadline and again when it is overdue. Add a Slack incoming webhook in your organisation settings to send the same nudges to a channel. Email is not used.

My queue

The dashboard opens on your queue, in this order:

1. Overdue, most overdue first.
2. Must decide, where you are a decider.
3. Waiting on me, including your own decisions that need changes.
4. Recently decided, from the last 14 days.

You can approve, request changes or reject from the row. Requesting changes or rejecting asks for a reason.

The decision record

When a decision is accepted, DesignDoc freezes a snapshot of the text, the deciders and the date. Later edits do not change it. To change a decision, supersede it with a new one and the old record stays linked.