Change Management¶
This document defines what level of process a given change requires. It complements the task-risk model in docs/ai/task-classification-and-routing.md, which is written for AI agents; this document is the human-facing, document-centric counterpart.
Categories of change¶
1. Normal documentation edit¶
A wording fix, link repair, formatting cleanup, or clarification that does not change the meaning
or binding content of a document. Requires no special process beyond normal editing — bump the
document's version patch number (see
versioning-and-release-management.md).
2. Product-specification update¶
A change to a specification's substantive content (adds/removes/changes a requirement, contract,
or behavior). Requires the specification's owner (typically Product Owner) to review, and a
version bump appropriate to the size of the change. Should not be moved to approved by the
author alone (see document-lifecycle.md).
3. Venture-level decision¶
A change that affects how a venture operates but isn't captured by a single specification — e.g. a new venture standard, a change in venture scope. Recorded as a venture-level ADR or standard, owned by the Venture Lead, subject to company-level constraints (see authority-and-inheritance.md).
4. Company-level ADR¶
A change that affects the company as a whole, or that establishes a precedent intended to bind
multiple ventures. Recorded as a company-level ADR in docs/decisions/, requiring Founder
approval.
5. Human approval required (regardless of category)¶
Independent of the above categories, some changes always require human approval before being considered final — see docs/ai/human-review-and-approval.md and the "High risk" tier in docs/ai/task-classification-and-routing.md: company policy, security controls, privacy practices, legal claims, financial models used for decisions, food-safety guidance, medical/nutrition claims, destructive migrations, and public product claims.
6. Migration / release notes¶
A change that affects how existing content, data, or a live product must be migrated, or that corresponds to a shipped release. Requires a recorded release note or migration note (see versioning-and-release-management.md) so the change is traceable after the fact.
Decision table¶
| Change | Category | Approval needed | Version bump |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fix a typo, broken link, or formatting | Normal edit | None | patch |
| Reword for clarity, no meaning change | Normal edit | None | patch |
| Add a section to a guide or template | Normal edit (guide/template) | Owner review recommended | minor |
| Change a specification's requirements | Product-specification update | Owner review, human approval before approved |
minor or major |
| Introduce a new venture standard | Venture-level decision | Venture Lead | minor/major (new doc starts 0.1.0) |
| Change something affecting multiple ventures | Company-level ADR | Founder | new ADR record |
| Touch security/privacy/legal/financial/food-safety/medical content | Human approval required | Founder and/or Security and Privacy Reviewer | per content type above |
| Ship a product change / update a record of what happened | Migration / release notes | Depends on above | record (new), not a version bump on history |
Flow¶
Is this a wording/formatting-only change with no meaning change?
└─ Yes → Normal edit. Proceed, bump patch version.
└─ No ↓
Does it touch security, privacy, legal, financial, food-safety, or medical/nutrition content,
or public commercialization claims?
└─ Yes → High risk. Draft it, but it MUST get explicit human approval before being treated
as final. See docs/ai/human-review-and-approval.md.
└─ No ↓
Does it change a product specification's substantive content?
└─ Yes → Product-specification update. Owner review, version bump, do not self-approve.
└─ No ↓
Does it affect one venture only?
└─ Yes → Venture-level decision (ADR or standard), Venture Lead approval.
└─ No → Company-level ADR, Founder approval.
See docs/governance/document-lifecycle.md for how status transitions interact with this table, and docs/ai/task-classification-and-routing.md for the agent-facing version of this risk model.