Authority / Decision Rights
Who should have authority to propose, approve, and execute an ecommerce change?
Proposal, approval, and execution are distinct authorities and may be logically separated even when low-risk policy permits an automated path.
Short answer
Proposal, approval, and execution are distinct authorities and may be logically separated even when low-risk policy permits an automated path.
Core explanation
As ecommerce operations become more automated, it may be useful to separate three different types of authority:
Proposal authority Who or what is allowed to suggest a change?
This could be:
- an employee
- an agency
- an AI agent
- an automation
- a PIM or ERP system
- an internal application
Approval authority Who is allowed to decide that the proposed change may reach production?
That decision may depend on:
- the affected field
- the size of the change
- business risk
- client or store policy
- regulatory requirements
- whether the change is an exception to normal rules
Execution authority Who or what is allowed to perform the actual production write?
These three roles do not necessarily need to belong to the same actor.
For example, an AI agent could propose new product descriptions, a policy engine could automatically approve low-risk changes, a human could review exceptions, and a controlled execution service could perform the final write.
The separation becomes more important when changes affect sensitive data, large batches, or multiple downstream systems.
If one actor can:
propose → approve → execute
then the same system effectively controls both the decision and the action.
A governed model might instead use:
proposal → policy/approval → authorized execution → verification
That does not mean every change needs three different humans.
The separation can be logical rather than organizational.
Low-risk changes may move automatically through predefined policy, while higher-risk actions require independent approval.
Authority should be determined by the risk and accountability associated with the change, not by convenience.
CommerceGov position
CommerceGov’s position is that the authority to suggest, authorize, and execute a change should be assigned separately according to the decision involved, even when policy permits an automated path.
Key concepts
- proposal authority
- approval authority
- execution authority
- risk-based policy
- verified production outcome