Signature is an execution event
A person can have authority to sign a document because the decision has already been made elsewhere. Commitment authority is the right to accept the economic, operational or legal trade-off itself.
Authority can be dimension-specific
Finance may own a margin exception, Legal a liability position, Delivery a feasibility judgment and an executive the combined strategic trade-off. The commitment needs to respect all of those decision rights.
Escalation is an authority design problem
When a deal exceeds normal authority, the right response is not merely “send it higher.” The escalation should show why the normal authority is insufficient and what decision the higher authority is being asked to own.
Good systems preserve human ownership
Automation can assemble evidence and surface policy, but a material judgment should still be attributable to the person or body authorised to make it.
The record should show who decided what
This improves accountability without forcing one person to own every dimension.