Decision Practice, LLC Public work sample | Revised 2026-08-05
Original workflow + fictional demonstration

Hands-on evidence-to-decision workflow

Before You Add R&D Capacity

An original browser tool and worked demonstration for turning scattered physical-product R&D evidence into a defensible decision receipt before committing to hiring, outsourcing, tooling, or reorganization.

Designed and directed by Josh Merchlinski, founder of Decision Practice.

What is real The diagnostic questions, five-way classification, eligibility test, economic guardrails, judgment controls, and receipt design.
What is fictional The company, people, dates, source records, and economic values in the worked demonstration.
Open the worked example Use the blank workflow
Cover of the Before You Add R and D Capacity operator work sample
Nine-page fictional worked demonstration with evidence register, diagnosis matrix, eligibility ledger, banded economics, decision receipt, and judgment log.

What this shows me doing

The reusable workflow is the primary work sample. The fictional case shows how I apply it without exposing client or employer information: reconciling source-level evidence, protecting alternatives, deciding what can be measured, and producing an object an authority owner can actually sign.

01

Reconcile evidence

Record what each export supports, what it does not prove, and the quality of the source.

02

Test alternatives

Compare five plausible mechanisms instead of forcing a predetermined capacity or workflow diagnosis.

03

Control eligibility

Separate mandatory physics, resource queues, missing inputs, authority gaps, and true decision waiting.

04

Receipt the decision

Map the closer, forum, exceptions, displaced work, next date, and low/base/high waiting exposure.

True shortageA specific skill or resource is actually governing completions.
Shared constraintA scarce specialist, lab, architecture review, or other bottleneck is queueing work.
Simultaneous workThe current pattern of active work may be increasing queues, reopenings, or coordination load.
Readiness or physicsRequired evidence is missing or mandatory work is still running.
Governance waitingThe work is ready for a yes/no, but no decision has been recorded.

The judgment is the work

A polished status deck can hide the decisions that make an analysis defensible. The worked example exposes those calls directly.

J1

Protected mandatory work

I did not relabel an active environmental test cycle as governance delay.

J2

Rejected false capacity precision

I did not treat 98 percent planned allocation as 98 percent effective throughput capacity.

J3

Kept the intervention specific

I separated a plausible specialty shortage from a broad request for generalist headcount.

J4

Started the clock late

I counted decision latency only after the evidence packet passed the eligibility test.

J5

Removed double counting

I kept loaded labor out of a margin-timing band that already contained the same exposure.

J6

Required a real tradeoff

I did not treat a pause as real until someone owned what stops instead and the exception path.

The result is not “you have too many projects.” It is a receipt of what is known, what is inferred, what remains unknown, and which decision can actually close now.

Use the blank workflow

This browser-only worksheet helps structure one decision. It does not transmit or store the entries. Use generic or sanitized information on shared devices.

Boundary:Working hypothesis only. Protect mandatory physics. Diagnose before implementation. No client-specific number without evidence.

Full artifact and provenance

The full worked example shows the complete evidence register, five-way diagnosis, decision-eligibility ledger, banded waiting economics, ready-to-sign receipt, authority path, and reusable worksheet.

Read the worked exampleNine-page PDF, fictional composite case Open PDF Keep a copyPortable public work sample Download
Authorship and production disclosure

This is an original Decision Practice workflow and a fictional worked demonstration. I directed the operating logic, classification rules, judgment controls, and final review. AI-assisted tools supported drafting, layout, and front-end implementation. I am responsible for the published artifact; it is not presented as a client result.

Operating boundary

The workflow is intentionally diagnostic. It does not smuggle in an implementation program.

Read-only: exports in, versioned artifacts out.

No credentials or integration: no system administration, write-back, or Jira, ERP, PLM, or PPM changes.

Fair classification: mandatory physics, readiness gaps, quality, supply, market, technical uncertainty, and true skill shortages remain valid findings.

Client-owned action: the receipt names the decision, evidence, owner, forum, exception path, and tradeoff. It does not run the forum or chase stakeholders.