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ADR template

Markdown template for Architecture Decision Records (ADRs). Here's the template...

• Template in English
• Template in Spanish
• Template in Chinese
• Template in Portuguese

Usage guidelines

• Each ADR is a plain text, 1-2 page document
• ADRs should be numbered
• ADRs should be stored within each software project repo
• Create a separate repo for crosscutting ADRs
• Track ADRs in the backlog
• Review ADRs
• Create ADRs for significant design decisions
• This template is a suggestion that you may want to adopt or adapt. In any case, establishing and sharing a template for ADRs in your team or organization is a good idea.

Examples of ADRs using this template

• Use of the BFF pattern
• Use CQRS
• Use AWS as cloud provider
• Use Payment Gateway in self-hosted mode
• Use the Wrapper pattern

(These examples are project-specific, of course. The decision and rationale make sense in that project's context.)

References

This template is based on:

• Documenting Architecture Decisions. Blog post by Michael Nygard, 2011.
• Architecture Decision Records in Action. SATURN 2017 presentation by Michael Keeling and Joe Runde.

See also this presentation by Ken Power at OOP.

Why this template?

• This template addresses a subtle yet fundamental deficiency of the ADR structure originally proposed by Michael Nygard:
  his proposed structure (Context; Decision; Status; Consequences) has no evident placeholder for the rationale behind the design decision.
• The justification, the rationale, the "why" behind the design decision should stand out as a separate section in the template for at least three reasons:
  • It is remarkably important! (Authors cited further below agree.)
  • A separate section reminds the author of the ADR that that information must be captured.
  • The rationale section avoids cluttering other sections with rationale discussion. Devs may reference the ADRs several times to re-read the decision and consequences. They need to read the rationale just once, so rationale should not be mixed in the other sections.
• Mark Richards and Neal Ford say "Why is more important than how" is the Second Law of Software Architecture (Fundamentals of Software Architecture).
• We say in our book "Record Rationale" is Rule 5 of the Seven Rules for Sound Documentation (Documenting Software Architectures, Second Edition).
• George Fairbanks proposed Architecture Haiku, which can be seen as an alternative approach to ADR. Haiku contents includes "design rationales".

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2023 Paulo Merson

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

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