patterns-technical-decisions

To document technology decisions, you evaluate 2-3 alternatives using consistent criteria like fit, complexity, ecosystem, security, and cost, then produce an Architecture Decision Record (ADR) to justify the chosen architectural choice.

An Architecture Decision Record (ADR) is a structured document that captures the rationale behind a technology choice. You need an ADR during architecture reviews, system design, or any project requiring traceable rationale to guide stakeholders and enable future audits.

You evaluate technology alternatives for a new tech stack by comparing 2-3 options against a consistent evaluation framework covering fit, complexity, ecosystem, security, and cost to justify the selected option.

Yes, you can use this for brownfield system design and architecture reviews. The process documents alignment with brownfield checks and research artifacts to ensure technology choices are traceable within existing system constraints.

The best way to maintain traceable rationale for technology choices is to generate RFC-like or ADR records that enforce evaluation criteria and document alignment with research artifacts, enabling future audits.

You should not use a structured ADR evaluation framework for trivial implementation choices that do not impact architecture, as the overhead of comparing alternatives and documenting criteria outweighs the need for traceable rationale.