GP-004 Temporary Common Sense Waiver

Common sense may be waived temporarily where it prevents delivery of a previously approved initiative.

All waivers require legal review, operations awareness and a clear expiry date that nobody will remember.

Purpose

This waiver process exists for cases where common sense creates delivery friction, contradicts an approved framework or causes a meeting to end before a steering committee has been formed.

Notwerking Technologies recognises that common sense can be useful in small quantities. Uncontrolled use, however, may undermine governance maturity by resolving issues before they have been properly documented.

Eligibility Criteria

A Temporary Common Sense Waiver may be requested where:

• The sensible option has no budget code
• The approved process is clearly worse but already in motion
• Stopping now would require admitting the previous meeting had value
• A workaround has more stakeholder support than the correct fix
• The issue can be deferred into a future operating model

Requests based solely on “this is obviously ridiculous” must be reframed using approved terminology.

Application Requirements

Applicants must submit:

• Description of the common sense being waived
• Business justification for not using it
• Impact assessment covering risk, cost and future embarrassment
• Confirmation that at least one senior stakeholder has been made aware enough
• Expiry date, renewal route and owner likely to have left by then

The phrase “temporary” must be used prominently. This does not create an obligation for the waiver to end.

Review Process

Valentina will review each waiver for legal exposure, governance posture and whether the organisation has accidentally documented intent.

Where a waiver appears too reasonable, it may be returned for additional complexity.

Operating Constraints

Approved waivers must not be used to:

• Bypass safety controls
• Avoid security review
• Replace architecture
• Make a decision without minutes
• Resolve an issue so effectively that the governance process looks unnecessary

Any waiver producing a visibly good outcome must be reclassified as a pilot.

Expiry And Renewal

Waivers expire on the stated date, after which they become legacy practice unless challenged by someone with both memory and authority.

Renewals require evidence that the original conditions still apply, or that nobody can now explain why they do not.