Responsibility, permission, and capacity allocation answer different operational questions and should never be collapsed into one generic assignment.

Responsibility describes what someone owes; permission describes what they may do; allocation describes when their effort is reserved.

An agency example

A creative director may own a campaign outcome. A designer may be the current Executor and have forty planned hours reserved in Capacity OS. A finance administrator may have permission to view cost information without owning or executing the work.

Changing a capacity plan must not silently transfer accountability. Granting application access must not automatically make someone a Project Lead. Ending an organizational affiliation must preserve the person’s historical actions while preventing unauthorized future work.