adr

An Architecture Decision Record (ADR) documents the context, reasoning, and consequences of significant technical decisions. You need an ADR for hard-to-reverse choices like framework selections, API contracts, and infrastructure strategies where trade-offs must be recorded.

To write an ADR, define an Architectural Identity declaring quality attributes and non-negotiables, evaluate alternatives in a weighted decision matrix, state explicit consequences, and request an adversarial review to stress-test assumptions before recording the final decision.

Yes, you can use an ADR template for choosing a primary database. It helps compare options like PostgreSQL versus managed NoSQL by applying weighted scoring criteria tied to your Architectural Identity, recording the winning decision and required mitigations.

Adversarial review improves architecture decision records by stress-testing assumptions, surfacing biases, and validating decision scores. This integration ensures your technical choices are durable, reduces rework, and provides future teams with reliable institutional memory.

The best way to store ADRs for team documentation and audits is using recommended naming conventions and file locations such as docs/adr/NNNN-title.md. This structured governance ensures your decision records remain discoverable and auditable.

An ADR should include an Architectural Identity, a decision statement, alternatives, a weighted decision matrix, explicit consequences, and references. Capturing these elements prevents ad-hoc choices and ensures future teams understand why specific architectures were chosen.