Approvals

Approvals are Darwin’s governance checkpoints.

They exist so important transitions are explicit rather than implied.

For project approval, the key rule is:

Approval is the moment an estimate becomes a committed cost-control baseline.

What Approvals Protect

Approvals help preserve:

• review discipline
• decision ownership
• auditability
• baseline clarity
• cost-control readiness

Common Approval Contexts

Approvals may apply to:

• project review
• price review
• estimation acceptance
• downstream cost-control baselining

An approval request can begin as a work request, and it may create tasks for approvers. The approval decision itself is the formal approve or reject outcome.

Why This Matters

An estimate should not become an accepted budget silently.

Approvals create a visible moment where the organization confirms:

• the logic is acceptable
• the prices are acceptable
• the context is understood
• the outcome is ready to move forward

If approved, the estimate becomes the active baseline for budget-vs-actual tracking.

If rejected, the estimate remains editable and should return to revision or clarification. Rejection preserves decision history, but it does not create a baseline.

Best Practices

• separate review from approval when possible
• document key assumptions before approval
• use approvals together with work requests and activity history
• treat approved estimates as controlled baselines
• review variance later against the active approved baseline, not against an arbitrary historical estimate