ADR Architectural Governance (Decision Records)

Diagrams document what exists, but rarely explain why. When architects transition or systems require refactoring, the historical context and trade-offs behind critical decisions are frequently lost.

EasyEA’s Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) bridge this gap by linking formal decisions directly to modeled assets and diagrams.

1. Canonical ADR Structure in EasyEA

Every decision record follows industry standards:

graph TD
    subgraph ADR["Architecture Decision Record Anatomy"]
        T["Title & Code (e.g., ADR-042)"]
        S["Status: Proposed | Accepted | Superseded | Deprecated"]
        C["Context: Business challenge, drivers, or constraints"]
        D["Decision: The selected technical or design choice"]
        CO["Consequences: Anticipated benefits & accepted trade-offs"]
        A["Alternatives: Discarded options with rationale"]
    end
    ADR --> Graph["Direct Bidirectional Graph Linking"]

Lifecycle Governance States:
- Proposed: Draft decision awaiting Enterprise Architecture Review Board review.
- Accepted: Formally approved baseline governing project delivery.
- Superseded: Replaced by a newer ADR (with an explicit forward link).
- Deprecated: Discontinued pattern or forbidden technology stack.

2. Direct Bidirectional Model Traceability

Unlike disconnected wiki pages, EasyEA ADRs link bi-directionally to model entities:

Asset Association: Link records directly to application components, cloud nodes, or business processes (e.g., linking ADR “Adopt PostgreSQL RDS Multi-AZ” to corporate database nodes).
Diagram Integration: Connect decisions to the architecture schemas illustrating their execution.
Inspector Discovery: Anyone inspecting an application component in the catalog immediately sees relevant ADRs, understanding the technical history behind its deployment.

3. ADR Central Registry & Audit Search

From Architect Hub ➔ ADR Manager, users can:

Execute full-text search across decisions, contexts, and trade-offs.
Filter by status to monitor pending Proposed records requiring board sign-off.
Export the full architecture decision log to Markdown or PDF for compliance audits.