# Choose what becomes permanent

Source: https://segern.com/practice/choose-what-becomes-permanent

Making it is a choice. Keeping it is a commitment.

A useful experiment can quietly become an essential system. A document becomes the reference everyone trusts. A temporary workaround becomes the only way a customer can complete a task. Continued use can create obligations long before anyone formally accepts them.

We distinguish trying something from committing to maintain it. Before work becomes a lasting part of the company, we ask who relies on it, what it must continue to do, who will care for it, and what that care will require. We also consider whether an existing solution, a simpler arrangement, or a manual step would serve the need better.

Importance deserves review. It does not automatically justify permanence. A short-lived tool can have serious consequences, while a long-lived note may require very little oversight.

Anything people depend on needs an appropriate home, an accountable owner, a way to recognize failure, and a credible path to repair, replacement, or retirement. A review date is a moment to decide what happens next, not permission to delete something whose dependencies remain unclear.

*Are we accepting the continuing obligation, or only enjoying the initial result?*