Determine whether an initiative meets the threshold for formal AI governance
Draft
Determine whether an initiative meets the threshold for formal AI governance
Layer 4. Control CLSClassification and thresholds
Allocation
| L4-CLS-03 | |
|---|---|
| Decides | Business Owner |
| Consulted | CAIO and Head of Risk |
| Executes | Business Owner |
| Evidence | Determination record, documented proportionately to materiality. Confirmed by the Business Accountable Executive once named under L4-CLS-06. |
| Delegated band | Delegated |
In plain terms
Decide whether this initiative crosses materiality at all. It is the decision that says formal AI governance applies here, or does not.
What is being judged
The initiative against the eleven dimensions, applied by someone close enough to it to know what it will actually do. This is deliberately not a committee decision, because routing every initiative to committee is how governance becomes a queue.
A negative determination is still a decision. The instinct is to record only the initiatives that cross the line. An initiative determined below materiality and never recorded is indistinguishable from one nobody assessed, and the second is a gap while the first is judgment.
What this decision does not cover
It does not classify by consequence. It does not authorize anything. An initiative below materiality still runs under Layer 5 delivery governance; it simply does not carry the material system artifact set.
When it fires
On event. At initiative inception, before the first stage gate. On material change to scope, data or affected population. When a pilot transitions under L5-06.
On cycle. None. This is an event-driven decision.
What you need before deciding
The materiality mechanism. What the initiative will do, who it affects and whether it acts. Realistic scope at twelve months rather than at launch, because scope expansion is the most common route to an unassessed material system.
How this goes wrong
Assessing launch scope only: the system was below materiality when it served one team and nobody re-determined when it served four. The unrecorded no: above. Determination by the builder: where the Business Accountable Executive has not been named yet, this decision drifts to whoever is running the initiative, which is the person least able to judge it disinterestedly. Name at L4-CLS-06 first.
Related decisions
Upstream L4-CLS-02, L4-CLS-06.
Downstream L4-CLS-04 or L4-CLS-05, L5-04 and L5-05 gates, artifact scoping.
Trigger L5-06 pilot transition.
Instrument references
None. No instrument requires a recorded determination that governance does not apply.
Correction
The maintainer answers corrections. There is no service level. Responses are best-effort and opportunistic within a reasonable time: a correction raised on a Monday is answered that week or sooner.