architecture-decision-records-dev

To create Architecture Decision Records, draft new ADRs using the prescribed MADR template, populate required frontmatter fields like id, project.id, title, status, and tags, and include required sections with at least one Mermaid diagram to illustrate architectural impact.

E.C.A.D.R. is a quality assessment criteria used to review Architecture Decision Records during governance, enabling reviewers and maintainers to evaluate ADR quality, manage lifecycle events like supersession or deprecation, and ensure traceability across software projects.

Yes, you can backfill undocumented architecture decisions from Git history by extracting past design choices and rationale, then drafting retroactive ADRs with proper MADR frontmatter, backreferences, and INVESTIGATE markers to maintain historical traceability.

The best way to manage ADR supersession and deprecation lifecycle is through enforced backreferences and status tracking within MADR frontmatter, ensuring reviewers mark deprecated records and link them to superseding decisions for continuous governance and traceability.

Yes, you need to include at least one Mermaid diagram in your architecture decision records to illustrate the architectural impact, as the prescribed ADR templates enforce required sections and diagrams to maintain documentation quality and clarity.

You need architecture decision records when teams must capture critical design decisions, rationale, and lifecycle across software projects, ensuring authors, reviewers, and maintainers have traceable governance and historical context for future architectural changes.