What problem does it solve?
Architecture impact review prevents costly, hard-to-reverse complexity by forcing clear decisions about boundaries, ownership, dependencies, data authority, scalability, operability, and failure handling before a design is endorsed.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Boundary and dependency direction review: Ensures new modules/services respect stable dependency flow and avoids cycles or boundary leaks that erode maintainability.
- Ownership, data authority, and contract enforcement: Requires explicit owners for shared abstractions and guarantees singular data ownership mediated through contracts rather than direct cross-service access.
- Operational risk and decision rigor: Quantifies availability and performance implications of new dependencies, defines failure blast radius expectations, and mandates tradeoffs and alternatives (with ADR guidance).
Quick Start
Ask the architecture-impact-reviewer to evaluate your proposed change by checking boundary impact, dependency direction, ownership and data authority, scalability and failure modes, and whether simpler alternatives should be used.