architecture

An Architecture Decision Record (ADR) captures the rationale, trade-offs, and consequences of a technology choice. You need an ADR when making significant system design decisions, such as selecting an event bus, to ensure the reasoning is documented and trackable.

To document trade-offs for Kafka vs SQS, you draft an ADR that outlines the context, evaluates both options, compares their specific trade-offs, and records the final decision along with its consequences.

Yes, you can evaluate alternative architectures by analyzing your specific requirements and constraints. The ADR structure helps you compare different system designs and formally record the trade-offs to inform your final pattern choice.

The best way to structure an ADR is to use a standard format with dedicated sections for context, options, trade-offs, decisions, and consequences. This ensures the design decision rationale is clear and comprehensively documented.

Yes, the process works for designing components from requirements by mapping your constraints into the ADR structure. It guides you to evaluate options and document the outcomes, ensuring the component design decision is justified.

You should document architecture decisions because they can be difficult to track and justify later. Creating an ADR ensures the context and trade-offs are preserved, preventing future teams from questioning why a specific design decision was made.