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DSI
Template

Expert Review Request Template

This tool has been retired

It stays online so existing links, version history and any work you already started against it still resolve. It is no longer maintained or reviewed.

Use Delivery-Risk Register instead
Type
Template
Difficulty
Intermediate
Time
30 min
Version
v1.0.0
Updated
6/30/2026
technicallegalproposal analysis

What this helps you do

Experts give better answers to narrow questions. This template forces the narrowing to happen before the request is sent.

Every request ends with the same clause: the expert is asked to assess evidence and feasibility, never to advise on how to vote.

When to use this

  • A proposal turns on a technical, legal, or economic claim outside your competence.
  • You need a written second opinion inside a voting window.
  • You want a specific claim tested rather than a general opinion.

When NOT to use this

  • To ask an expert how you should vote.
  • When the question is really about values or priorities rather than facts.
  • When the voting window is too short for the expert to answer honestly.

What you'll need

  • The single claim you want tested
  • The voting deadline
  • Your current understanding of the claim
  • Links to the proposal and any supporting evidence

Estimated completion time

30 minutes

Working time for one governance action, assuming the inputs listed here are already to hand.

How to use it

  1. 1Reduce the proposal to one testable claim.
  2. 2State your current understanding so the expert can correct rather than restate it.
  3. 3Give the deadline and the format you need.
  4. 4Include an explicit line that you are not requesting a voting recommendation.
  5. 5Publish the response, or a summary of it, with your rationale.

The tool

Full template - v1.0.0

What a good request contains

  • The specific claim you want tested, not the whole proposal
  • A deadline tied to the voting window
  • Your current understanding, so the expert can correct it
  • Whether you want a written note or a 20-minute call
  • A statement that you are not asking for a voting recommendation
Fictional Example

Invented for illustration. It does not describe a real governance action, proposal, or organisation.

Fictional request

  • Claim to test: the proposed indexer can serve the stated query volume on the specified hardware.
  • Current understanding: plausible for reads, uncertain under concurrent writes.
  • Deadline: 6 days, before the voting window closes.
  • Format: a short written note, one page is enough.
  • Note: no voting recommendation is sought or wanted.

How to interpret the result

  • A well-scoped request produces an expert answer you can quote and attribute.
  • If the question cannot be answered from public artefacts, narrow it before sending.

Limitations

  • An expert opinion is input to your reasoning, not a delegation of your vote.
  • It does not create any duty for the expert and confers no endorsement.

Sources and methodology

Learn this method

This tool records the work. The Training Lab teaches how to do it.

  • risk-security-legal · Evaluating Team and Delivery Risk

    Evaluating Team and Delivery Risk

    Explains which delivery risks are worth an expert opinion.

    Open lesson

Downloads

  • Markdown export: the complete tool, including metadata, instructions, the template, limitations, sources and version history.

No other file formats are published for this resource. We list a format only when the file exists.

Version and governance

Current version
v1.0.0
Published
8/9/2026
Last updated
6/30/2026
Next scheduled review
12/30/2026
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Editorial status
Not yet externally reviewed

No named reviewer is shown because no external review has been completed. Attribution appears only once a verified reviewer has signed off.

Changelog

  • v1.0.0 (2026-06-30) - Migrated from the static library into the resource register.
  • v1.0.0 (2026-08-10) - Retired. Superseded by Delivery-Risk Register. Kept for version history and existing member workspaces.
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