Intake Sponsor
Champions the business need and provides sponsorship for the request or opportunity.
How it works
A visible path from demand to accountable outcomes.
LIA combines a seven-stage lifecycle with defined responsibilities, structured artifacts, readiness evaluation, and explicit governance routing.
Canonical lifecycle
Seven stages. No hidden handoffs.
Signal · purpose
What is being requested, observed, or proposed?
Capture the initial request, concern, opportunity, or observation without prematurely defining a solution.
- Key questions
- What prompted this signal? · Who is affected?
- Primary artifacts
- Signal Record
- Primary roles
- Signal Owner / Requestor, Intake Analyst
- Exit condition
- A traceable signal is recorded with enough context to begin clarification.
Defined roles
Clear responsibilities create better decisions.
LIA roles describe responsibilities that may map to existing organizational roles; they do not require these exact job titles.
Intake Analyst
Structures the request, performs analysis, identifies gaps, and prepares decision-ready information.
Intake Facilitator
Facilitates discovery, alignment, and stakeholder conversations.
Governance Reviewer
Evaluates governance, controls, policy, readiness, and decision traceability.
Decision Authority
Owns the final disposition or governance decision.
Flow Steward
Ensures approved demand transitions appropriately and remains visible through realization.
Knowledge Worker
Provides specialized domain, business, technology, risk, product, architectural, or operational knowledge.
Supporting participation may include the Signal Owner / Requestor, Concern Lead, stakeholders, portfolio representatives, and value or business architecture participants.
Artifacts
Structured artifacts make decisions visible and traceable.
Intake
- Signal Record
- Context Packet
- Intake Canvas
- Purpose / use
- Establishes the request, context, and problem framing.
- Typical owner
- Signal Owner / Intake Analyst
- Produces
- A traceable, structured intake record.
Analysis
- Value Signal Matrix
- Readiness / Decision Qualification Scorecard
- Stakeholder Map
- Alignment Ledger
- Purpose / use
- Makes value, readiness, stakeholders, and alignment gaps visible.
- Typical owner
- Intake Analyst / Facilitator
- Produces
- A decision-readiness picture.
Decision
- Decision Log
- Decision Gate / Governance Recommendation
- Purpose / use
- Documents the recommended path, rationale, and disposition.
- Typical owner
- Decision Authority / Governance Reviewer
- Produces
- A transparent, traceable decision.
Governance & Realization
- Governance Charter
- Policy Trace
- Resolution Record
- Value Realization Record
- Purpose / use
- Carries accountability, controls, resolution, and outcomes forward.
- Typical owner
- Governance Reviewer / Flow Steward
- Produces
- Governed transition and outcome evidence.
Decision Scorecard
A readiness picture—not simply a priority score.
The scorecard supports structured discussion across dimensions such as clarity, strategic fit, business value, readiness, ownership, risk, stakeholder alignment, and capacity or timing fit.
Final scoring definitions and thresholds should be applied from the controlled LIA methodology materials rather than inferred from this public overview.
Governance routing
The goal is not to approve everything.
The goal is to route each request to the right decision path.
01
Fast-track
Clear need, high readiness, low friction
02
Standard intake
Balanced profile; proceeds through normal governance
03
Discovery required
Important gaps or uncertainty require additional analysis
04
Portfolio review
Strategic, financial, capacity, or dependency considerations require escalation
05
Defer
Valid request, but timing or conditions are not appropriate
06
Redirect
The request belongs with another function, product, portfolio, or governance path
07
Decline / Stop
Insufficient value, alignment, readiness, or viability to proceed
What enters delivery matters.
Improve decision readiness before significant capacity, funding, and delivery effort are committed.