Creating effective and objective architectural decision records (ADRs)
summary
Shows a concrete ADR structure: context as a one-line goal and scope, stakeholder mapping in four quadrants, explicit quality and business requirements with a spectrum of acceptability, and distinct options compared with weighted scoring so trade-offs become numerical and repeatable. Uses C4 level two diagrams, sequence diagrams and user stories and suggests quick editable diagrams with mermaid. Illustrates with a CMS replacement and a testing change to avoid mutating production, ADRs ranging from 2–3 pages to 15+ pages, and creation times from two hours to a quarter.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Effective ADRs
- 1:49Stakeholder roles
- 3:37Context and requirements
- 6:25Trade-off analysis
- 9:11Addressing common concerns about ADRs
- 12:40Decision implementation
- 14:07AI in decision-making
- 14:47Conclusion
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