Architectural Decision Records

An Architectural Decision (AD) is a software design choice that addresses a functional or non-functional requirement that is architecturally significant. An Architecturally Significant Requirement (ASR) is a requirement that has a measurable effect on a software system’s architecture and quality. An Architectural Decision Record (ADR) captures a single AD, such as often done when writing personal notes or meeting minutes; the collection of ADRs created and maintained in a project constitute its decision log. All these are within the topic of Architectural Knowledge Management (AKM).

Note: The term “architecture decision record” can be used interchangeably.

See these articles for an explanation of Architecture Decision Records (ADR):

Decision log (ADRs)

This document is used to track key decisions that are made during the course of the project. This can be used at a later stage to understand why decisions were made and by whom.

Decision	Date	Alternatives considered	Reasoning	Detailed doc	Made by	Work Required
A one-sentence summary of the decision made.	Date the decision was made.	A list of the other approaches considered.	A two to three sentence summary of why the decision was made.	A link to the ADR with the format [Title] DR.	Who made this decision?	A link to the work item for the linked ADR
Record architecture decisions	2 Aug 2021	-		ADR-001	CoE	Log all decisions
Standard language is English	2 Aug 2021	Dutch language	Making English the standard language contributes to the maintainability of the applications	ADR-002	CoE	-
Server Actions exposed to Reactive applications must be secured	2 Aug 2021	Using a token	Public OutSystems Server Actions are exposed as REST services when consumed by Reactive or Mobile web applications.	ADR-003	CoE	-
Use the BDD framework for Component testing	2 aug 2021		There exist several Automated Testing Tools that are suitable for component testing. OutSystems recommends to use the BDD framework for Component testing and we accept this recommendation.	ADR-004	CoE	-
We will centralize all styling in the designated theme.	2 aug 2021	-	A Style Guide ensures a consistent look-and-feel across your applications, managing complexity, ensuring ease of use, and facilitating change. Only by centralizing the theme we can enforce the style guide.	ADR-005	CoE	Maintaining a centralized theme
We will only use forge components that are approved by the Center of Excellence	2 aug 2021			ADR-006	CoE	Get approval for using forge components that are not supported or trusted
Use UUIDv7 as the primary key for all new tables.	proposed	sequential integer IDs	todo	ADR-007	-	todo
We will use a common glossary to define the ubiquitous language as an essential part of the domain model.	proposed	-	todo	ADR-008	-	Maintain the glossary