What it does
Where delegated authority shows up.
Every one of these happens in most organisations already. The question is whether anyone can say who granted it, what it covered, and when it was supposed to stop.
Example: cover and absence
Someone acts while someone else is away
| Who acts | On what | Within what limit | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A colleague, for a defined period | Approvals or decisions the absent person normally makes | A value threshold and a fixed end date | The authority ends on the return date rather than persisting until an access review finds it. |
Example: acting and interim roles
A role is filled temporarily
| Who acts | On what | Within what limit | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A person stepping up into a vacant or covered role | The decisions attached to that role, not the whole role | The duration of the arrangement, reviewed if extended | Interim authority is visible as interim, so it does not quietly become permanent. |
Example: acting for an organisation
A person acts on an organisation’s behalf
| Who acts | On what | Within what limit | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| An employee, contractor or agent representing the organisation | A defined transaction or class of transaction with a third party | Purpose, scope and an expiry aligned to the engagement | The receiving party can see the basis on which the person is acting, not just that they turned up. |
Example: elevated administrative access
Someone needs privileged access briefly
| Who acts | On what | Within what limit | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| An engineer or administrator, for a specific task | Elevated rights on a named system | The task window, with automatic expiry | Standing privilege is replaced by authority that exists only while there is a reason for it. |
Example: supporting another person
Someone helps another person with a task
| Who acts | On what | Within what limit | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A family member, carer or nominated supporter | A specific service interaction, not the whole account | The task, and the period the person chooses | Help does not require handing over every permission the account holder has. |
What makes a delegation worth recording
Four things to check a candidate against before building a process around it.
Someone is genuinely accountable
There is a person with the standing to grant this authority. Without that, you have a permission, not a delegation.
It is meant to be temporary
The clearest value is where authority should end. Permanent responsibility is usually better modelled as a role.
The scope can be stated
If nobody can say what the authority covers, that is worth resolving regardless of what tooling you use.
Someone will be asked about it
Audit, incident review or a regulator. If the question will come, the record is worth having before it does.
Recognise one of these?
Tell us how it works in your organisation today, including the parts that are held together by trust and memory.