A proposed service change affects several teams. Before accepting it, the responsible people need to understand its reasons, the principles it affects and who can decide. These information technology (IT) governance assets help prepare that discussion and retain its outcome.
Each task pairs a human brief with an artificial intelligence (AI) prompt template, required inputs, expected outputs and a fictional worked example. Adapt the record to your sources and existing authority. The download contains the complete template; the descriptions below help you choose one.
Evidence/principle comparison
Compare a proposed IT change with the principles that actually apply to it.
Identify the applicable principles and their accepted versions. Compare each with a particular part of the proposal and a source that supports or challenges it. Explain any trade-off, missing information or exception for the responsible decision-maker.
Human brief and AI prompt template — Markdown
Example. For the fictional case service, the proposed principle is that each active case has one current owner. The contract describes acceptance changing ownership atomically, as one indivisible change. That supports the logical design; no implementation test has run, so operational conformity remains unestablished.
Ownership
Establish who owns the work, the information and the decisions affected by an IT change.
Trace the service and its dependencies to the people or teams responsible for them. Distinguish operating a component, owning information, accepting a risk and approving a service change. Record uncertain or conflicting assignments for resolution.
Human brief and AI prompt template — Markdown
Example. In the fictional service, a platform team could operate identity infrastructure while an information owner decides permitted learner-data use. The map must establish both responsibilities; platform access alone does not settle a proposed disclosure.
Guidance supersession
Prepare a change to guidance while retaining the reasons and status of earlier decisions.
Identify the accepted guidance, its scope and the finding that calls it into question. Draft the replacement or proposed withdrawal, explain the alternatives and consequences, and show how the history will remain linked. Use the organisation’s actual decision-record conventions.
Human brief and AI prompt template — Markdown
Example. A fictional recovery guide assumes software rollback restores the whole service. A proposed replacement explains reconciliation of already accepted handovers. The earlier guide remains available; the replacement is proposed until the responsible owner accepts it.
Release preparation
Bring together the information needed to decide whether a particular IT change can enter use.
Identify the exact release candidate and the service it affects. Gather relevant checks, staff and supplier readiness, outstanding work, remaining risks and recovery arrangements. Keep preparation, acceptance, deployment and verified use separate.
Human brief and AI prompt template — Markdown
Example. The fictional case-service package could pass technical checks while staff lack access. Readiness would remain incomplete. The sample identifies the missing staff-access check; it records no real deployment or service acceptance.
Warning handling
Decide what an observed warning means and what response is justified.
Read the exact warning in its context. Establish the affected service and whether it indicates a fault, a risk, an advisory condition or a checking problem. Identify the permitted response and how its result would be verified; keep dismissal and remediation distinct.
Human brief and AI prompt template — Markdown
Example. A model-quota warning could threaten a later service step even while current work succeeds. The sample proposes checking remaining capacity and the agreed fallback. It does not label a restart as a cure or claim an outage occurred.
Connected guidance
Management explains decision rights and retained guidance. Security explains authority and controls. Deployment and operations connects readiness to the whole service.
AI-supported architecture describes how these activities can use AI assistance. Browse the other IT practice collections when a task crosses governance, delivery and support.
Methodology configuration
Use the terms and records your team already understands. Keep their meanings, source versions and decision owners clear. Methodology configuration explains how to map the activities and reviews to your own approach.
Edition and reuse
Version 1.0 · September 2026 · © 2005–2026 Adrian Sutherland.
Portal-authored downloads use CC BY 4.0. Keep the author, source edition and licence with adaptations, and identify changes. Read the edition note and use the asset index — JSON for the complete list of tasks and download addresses.