In this he was particularly inspired by Phillipe Kruchten talking about decision registers / decision logs, and by the writing style of software patterns. Keep the ADR short and to the point – typically a single page. ADRs play a central role in the Advice Process, where they are not only used to document decisions, but the act of writing them is used to elicit expertise and alignment.
- The third building block for aligning architecture decisions is creating ADRs or lightweight RFCs.
- Have the alternatives been considered?
- This enables you to use pull requests for ADR reviews, so the team can discuss and approve architectural decisions just like code changes.
- ADR Guard is a GitHub Action that fails a pull request when watched code paths change without an architecture decision record being added or updated.
- We then discuss outcomes with the respective internal community of practice or teams that may interact with it.
- Technology Standards should be created and maintained by a cross-functional team of experts in relevant fields.
This is a good place to mention any changes in the product context that should trigger the team to reevaluate the decision. If you’re still tracking critical architecture decisions in email threads, spreadsheets, or generic collaboration tools, you’re not just wasting time. Rationale was mentioned in an early definition of software architecture https://otofast.info/automotive-industry-news-navigating-the-fast-lane-of-auto-industry-updates.html by Perry/Woolf, but not researched much until 2004, when a workshop on architectural decisions and Architectural Knowledge Management was held in Groningen, NL.
Identify a real architectural decision you’re facing or have recently made. Where will this break down as requirements change? Instead, ask for an honest analysis of each option against your criteria. With criteria, they become structured trade-off analyses. Without explicit criteria, architectural evaluations become debates about preferences. This is exactly the kind of structured reasoning under uncertainty where Claude adds the most value.
Adopting Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) practice
As with most written documents, writing ADRs serves two purposes. They should not be modified if the decision is changed, but linked to a superseding decision. Documents should be short, just a couple of pages, and contain the decision, the context for making it, and significant ramifications. An Architecture Decision Record (ADR) is a short document that captures and explains a single decision relevant to a product or ecosystem.
This ensures that every stakeholder has access to single source of truth, improving alignment and agility in decision-making. At SAP LeanIX, we’ve re-imagined how organizations document, track, and govern architecture decisions. Practical architecture training, most classes taught by Peter https://www.e-lib.info/getting-to-the-point-7/ Hruschka and Gernot Starke — the people who created arc42 and maintain this free reference (dates with other trainers say so) — and solid preparation for iSAQB certifications. Therefore you should document a few important decisions together with their motivation, reasoning