Document a architecture decision for an option. This is useful to state the reasons and the options that have been evaluated. Later other team members will have it easier to understand the decision.
Description
Document an architecture decision for an option. This is useful to state the reasons and the options that have been evaluated. Later other team members will have it easier to understand your decision.
Properties
The document type architecture decision provides the following properties:
Type
Types allow to group decisions. A project demands its own definition of types via the decision type document type.
Sections
Problem
Define the problem that this decision solves.
The problem has the following subsections.
Details
Define the problem that this decision solves.
Relevance
Describe why this decision is relevant for the project and why it should be documented to be referable to later.
Implication
Describe what general implications the fact that a decision is to be made, will have on the project.
Problem Constraints
Define constraints imposed on possible decisions.
These constraints are described in the following subsections.
Requirements
Illustrate the functional and non-functional-requirements that constrain the decision.
Drivers
Describe what other drivers are relevant for the decision.
Risks
Describe which risks are involved with this decision.
Assumptions
Decisions have to be made in situations where not every information detail is available. Otherwise the path to take would be clear without any doubts. To close the gaps between known and unknown assumptions have to be made. This section allows to document the assumption so that the decision is better understandable later.
Description
Describe which assumptions you haven made to make the decision. It is assumed that assumptions cannot be proven, else this would be a requirement.
Check Assumptions
Describe strategies how the given assumptions can be proofed or refuted?
Risks
List the risks this assumption has.
Alternatives
Define possible alternatives you have discussed.
Decision
Provide information about why this option has been selected, who was involved in the decision and what consequences arise.
Statement
Give a brief statement that defines what has been decided to do.
Reason
Document what reasons led to the decision.
Implication
Describe what implications this decision has on the project.
Date
Log the date of the decision.
Deciders
List names of the stakeholders, who took part in the decision.
If there is uncertainty about why this decision has been made, these stakeholders may provide additional information. Consider then to include this information in this document.
Subordinate Decisions
Complex decisions may be divided into its parts.
Notes
These are internal notes that are usually not exported and only visible to team members with write access.
But this is not a safe place to store sensible information. It is just a convenience for the reader to not be bothered with notes stored here for the authors for later use. The security level is about suppressing the representation by a CSS style. Therefore consider this as a convenience for the reader, not as a security tool.
References
For a document the references section contains pointers to resources that prove the statements of the document.
Often these proofs are not easily distinguishable from further information. In this case you may want to skip the reference section in favour for the resource list.
Resources
The resources section provides references to further information to the topic of the document.
This may be information on the internet provided by the resource or information in the team's information systems. Anything the reader of the resource might want to know, may be listed here.
