Purpose — what needs review
Bring to Review (anything with cross-team or system-wide impact)
- Architectural Changes — new patterns (e.g., microservices, event-driven), major refactors or re-platforming, tech stack decisions
- Process Changes — changes to how teams build, deploy, or operate software; anything that affects delivery velocity, quality, or reliability; new workflows that impact multiple teams (e.g., CI/CD, incident response)
- Governance & Standards — introduction of coding, security, or data standards; decisions that affect compliance or auditability
- Strategic Initiatives — new products, platforms, or integrations; vendor or tooling changes with estate-wide implications
Skip Review (delegate or handle asynchronously)
- Local team decisions that don't affect others
- Routine upgrades or bug fixes
- Experiments or spikes (unless they're being productionized)
- Anything reversible with low risk
Attendees
- CTO
- Director of Engineering
- Director of Information Security and IT
- SMEs
Input
Raise the review with the CTO via Slack, providing:
- Title
- Description of Change
- Type of Change
- Impacted Systems or Teams
- Rationale
- Risks
- Proposed Timeline
Output
Approval for the design and design best practice guidance.
Responsibilities
The development team needs to raise the request in the Slack channel with the appropriate information to the CTO. The CTO will then schedule a meeting with the relevant team members to walk through the solution and advise and give guidance on the solution.
How to raise a review
Raise the review with the CTO in the designated Slack channel.