Write the intake that protects the platform

Objectives

Work arrives by Slack. Last quarter the team built three integrations for the executive who asked most often, one serving a control with no owner, while the shared evidence store stayed 'next quarter' for the fourth time.

Define intake: the questions every request must answer, a prioritisation formula that is not volume-of-asking, reserved platform capacity, and an explicit statement that accountability stays with the control owner.

requests accepted        : 11 (all by Slack, none scored)
built for one stakeholder: 3
served a control with no named owner: 1
platform work completed  : 0 (capacity fully committed before quarter start)
collectors that broke unnoticed: 2 (found by the auditor)

the team wants to know, for every request:
  which control or obligation, whose control, what evidence, what it costs manually today

Step-by-step hints

The guided walkthrough, in full. It is free: no XP cost, and it does not touch the paid hint ladder or the reveal gate.

1. Step 1

   Ask four questions of every request

   List the required fields the fixture names: the control or obligation served, the owner of that control, the evidence it must produce, and the manual cost today. A request that cannot answer all four is not ready to schedule.

   Intake asks the four qualifying questions

2. Step 2

   Replace the formula

   Seniority is why one executive got three integrations. Write a formula combining what the work costs manually, how often it recurs, and how exposed the control is at audit.

   Prioritisation is driven by cost and exposure

3. Step 3

   Ring-fence the platform

   Set the reserved fraction of capacity for work no stakeholder will ever request: the shared store, collector maintenance, the catalog. Reserve it before the quarter is committed, not afterwards.

   Platform capacity is reserved up front

4. Step 4

   Say who is answerable

   Change the accountability field so the business control owner remains answerable for the control operating. Automation moves the work; it must not move the blame.

   Accountability stays with the control owner

Rules summary

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