What’s in a Word? Approve vs. Permit vs. Authorize

Hello there!

Permit to Work (PTW) is a critical process in enterprise facilities and safety (EHS/HSE). If you want to know more about PTW, you can learn here: VersionX Permit to Work System

The question that I have in mind today is regarding the word “permit.” Why permit, or permission? Why not approval or authorization? And what’s the difference between authentication and verification?

These words are used frequently in physical operations. The problem is that they all sound identical. And humans love to use them interchangeably. But actually they each mean something distinct.

I dug deeper to understand them better. So, here I am - sharing my confusions - and understanding.

I watched an engineer who had to perform maintenance work (an actual day-to-day operational process).

The engineer arrives to do maintenance on a chemical storage unit.

The visitor system (or security guard) checks their ID. Verification is the initial check that matches a physical person or document to an official record. It confirms that an identity - the engineer - exists and is real.

(Just like how airport security checks your ID at the departure hall.)

The engineer scans their face, biometric badge (or the pre-approved visitor pass with a valid ID). Authentication is the step where the user proves they are the right owner of that verified identity. This is to confirm that the engineer is who they claim to be.

This is the right granted to the engineer to perform an action.

The system checks whether the engineer specifically can handle hazardous materials. Permission is the actual list of what's allowed.

This is similar to Authorization but with a slight difference.

Authorization is more contextual than permission.

The system takes the engineer’s permission and evaluates them against context-specific variables. Based on that, it grants or denies access at the exact moment of execution.

Example: Does the engineer have an active maintenance ticket for this specific room at this specific hour?

The engineer may not be authorised (even if authenticated at the gate), if they do not have a scheduled maintenance "ticket" for a “specific” room or time.

Authorization determines “what you’re allowed to do.”

So, the engineer has been permitted to do work. But this was only possible through one or more approvals.

Hence, approval is the formal, administrative decision that a high-risk task is acceptable to proceed.

In our engineer’s case, the area supervisor has already reviewed and greenlighted the maintenance job. This is approval - an explicit, workflow sign-off required to do something.

Like how you need approval to go on a long holiday.

Thank goodness, unlike humans, we don’t ever have to take approvals or permissions from anyone.

Life ought to be a holiday for everyone.