oliverdavies.uk/content/node.ec6af399-d960-4715-92c5-760fce33d803.yml

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<h2 id="architectural-decision-records">Architectural Decision Records</h2>
<p>Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) are documents to record software design choices. They could be saved in your code repository as plain-text or Markdown files, or stored in Confluence or a wiki - wherever your team stores its documentation.</p>
<p>They usually consist of the sections:</p>
<ul>
<li>Status - is it proposed, accepted, rejected, deprecated, superseded, etc.?</li>
<li>Context - what is the issue that is causing the decision or change?</li>
<li>Decision - what is the change that's being done or proposed?</li>
<li>Consequences - what becomes easier or more difficult to do?</li>
</ul>
<p>Any change that is architecturally significant should require an ADR to be written, after which it can be reviewed and potentially actioned.</p>
<p>These will remain in place to form a decision log, with specific ADRs being marked as superseded if a newer ADR replaces it.</p>
<h2 id="technical-design-documents">Technical Design Documents</h2>
<p>A similar type of document are Technical Design Documents (TDDs), that I first saw on TheAltF4Stream. I like to think of these as lightweight ADRs.</p>
<p>The first heading is always "What problem are we trying to solve?", or sometimes just "The problem".</p>
<p>Similar to the Context heading in an ADR, this should include a short paragraph describing the issue.</p>
<p>Unlike ADRs, there are no other set headings but these are some suggested ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is the current process?</li>
<li>What are any requirements?</li>
<li>How do we solve this problem?</li>
<li>Alternative approaches</li>
</ul>
<p>I like after describing the problem, being able to move straight into describing what's appropriate and relevant for this task and ignore sections that aren't needed.</p>
<p>When I started writing ADRs, they all had the 'Accepted' status as I was either writing them for myself or in a pair or mob. As wasn't adding any value, I've removed it since switching to writing TDDs.</p>
<p>Whether you use ADRs, TDDs or another approach, it's very useful to have a log of all of your architectural design decisions, both looking back in the future to remember why something was done in a certain way, or before you start implementing a solution to review the problem, evaluate the requirements and all potential solutions and document the selected one any why it was selected.</p>
<p><a href="https://adr.github.io">Find our more about ADRs</a> or <a href="https://altf4.wiki/t/how-do-i-write-a-tdd/21">find out more about TDDs</a>.</p>
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<h2 id="architectural-decision-records">Architectural Decision Records</h2>
<p>Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) are documents to record software design choices. They could be saved in your code repository as plain-text or Markdown files, or stored in Confluence or a wiki - wherever your team stores its documentation.</p>
<p>They usually consist of the sections:</p>
<ul>
<li>Status - is it proposed, accepted, rejected, deprecated, superseded, etc.?</li>
<li>Context - what is the issue that is causing the decision or change?</li>
<li>Decision - what is the change that's being done or proposed?</li>
<li>Consequences - what becomes easier or more difficult to do?</li>
</ul>
<p>Any change that is architecturally significant should require an ADR to be written, after which it can be reviewed and potentially actioned.</p>
<p>These will remain in place to form a decision log, with specific ADRs being marked as superseded if a newer ADR replaces it.</p>
<h2 id="technical-design-documents">Technical Design Documents</h2>
<p>A similar type of document are Technical Design Documents (TDDs), that I first saw on TheAltF4Stream. I like to think of these as lightweight ADRs.</p>
<p>The first heading is always "What problem are we trying to solve?", or sometimes just "The problem".</p>
<p>Similar to the Context heading in an ADR, this should include a short paragraph describing the issue.</p>
<p>Unlike ADRs, there are no other set headings but these are some suggested ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is the current process?</li>
<li>What are any requirements?</li>
<li>How do we solve this problem?</li>
<li>Alternative approaches</li>
</ul>
<p>I like after describing the problem, being able to move straight into describing what's appropriate and relevant for this task and ignore sections that aren't needed.</p>
<p>When I started writing ADRs, they all had the 'Accepted' status as I was either writing them for myself or in a pair or mob. As wasn't adding any value, I've removed it since switching to writing TDDs.</p>
<p>Whether you use ADRs, TDDs or another approach, it's very useful to have a log of all of your architectural design decisions, both looking back in the future to remember why something was done in a certain way, or before you start implementing a solution to review the problem, evaluate the requirements and all potential solutions and document the selected one any why it was selected.</p>
<p><a href="https://adr.github.io">Find our more about ADRs</a> or <a href="https://altf4.wiki/t/how-do-i-write-a-tdd/21">find out more about TDDs</a>.</p>
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