← Quality, Risk & Assurance

Flagship service

Approval Integrity

Know what was approved. Know what changed. Know whether you can still rely on it.

The service

Test continued reliance against current reality.

An approval is rarely unconditional. It depends on evidence, assumptions, suppliers, controls, architecture, operating conditions, risks, people, data and other dependencies.

Those conditions can change while the organisation continues behaving as though the original decision still stands.

CEREARK establishes the approval basis, identifies the material conditions and dependencies, compares them with current operating reality, and determines where change has affected the strength of the original decision.

Two routes

A missing record does not end the engagement.

Both routes produce a usable dependency set. They carry different evidential strength and effort, which we state explicitly.

Evidenced route

Approval record available

We establish the dependency set from the recorded decision: its evidence, assumptions, conditions, owners, controls and material dependencies.

  1. Locate and assess the approval record
  2. Extract the decision basis and dependency set
  3. Compare recorded conditions with current reality
  4. Identify breaks, drift and renewed evidence needs

Reconstructed route

Approval record absent or inadequate

We reconstruct the dependency set from operating reality and available evidence. We do not imply that an adequate original record existed.

  1. Establish the decision now being relied upon
  2. Trace available evidence and operating dependencies
  3. Reconstruct the conditions that make reliance possible
  4. State evidential limits, gaps and remediation needs

What we establish

A decision basis leadership can inspect.

  • What was approved and by whom
  • What evidence and assumptions supported it
  • Which dependencies were material
  • What has changed since approval
  • Which approval conditions remain intact

What leadership receives

A defensible route forward.

  • A traceable approval and dependency view
  • A clear account of change and its significance
  • Evidence gaps and unresolved uncertainty
  • Actions for remediation, renewed evidence or re-approval
  • Controls needed to protect continued reliance

Where it applies

Wherever consequential reliance persists after the facts have moved.

AI and models

A system now uses a different model, dataset or decision role from the one assessed.

Programmes and go-live

Approval depended on controls or mitigations that were later weakened or normalised.

Suppliers and architecture

Data location, service architecture, subcontracting or operating assumptions changed.

Critical services

Temporary acceptance conditions quietly became permanent operating dependencies.

Begin with the decision

What are you still relying on—and what may have changed underneath it?

We can determine whether Approval Integrity is the right focused intervention.

Discuss an approval