Architecture Decision RecordTeamwark advice for ADRs
If ye're considerin uisin decisioun records wi yer team, than here's some advice that we've lairnt bi warkin wi mony teams.
Ye hae a chance tae lead yer teammates, bi blethrin thegither aboot the "why", raither than mandatin the "whit". For example, decisioun records are a wey for teams tae think smairter an communicate better; decisioun records are no valuable if they're juist an efter-the-fact forced paperwark requirement.
Some teams muckle prefer the name "decisiouns" ower the abbreviation "ADRs". Whan some teams uise the directory name "decisiouns", than it's as if a licht bulb turns on, an the team stairts puttin mair information intae the directory, sic as vendor decisiouns, plannin decisiouns, schedulin decisiouns, etc. Aw o thir kinds o information can uise the same template. We hypothesise that fowk lairn faster wi wirds ("decisiouns") ower abbreviations ("ADRs"), an fowk are mair motivatit tae scrieve wark-in-progress docs whan the wird "record" is taen awa, an an aw some developers an some managers dislike the wird "architectur".
In theory, immutability is ideal. In practice, mutability haes warked better for oor teams. We insert the new info intae the existin ADR, wi a date stamp, an a note that the info arrived efter the decisioun. This kind o approach leads tae a "livin document" that we aw can update. Typical updates are whan we get information thanks tae new teammates, or new offerins, or real-warld results o oor uisages, or efter-the-fact third-pairty chynges sic as vendor capabilities, pricin plans, licence agreements, etc.