---
title:      "ADR"
ring:       assess
quadrant:   methods-and-patterns

---
Architecture Decision Records

ADR is a lightweight documentation of important architecture decisions taken by the team.
Without documentation of the architecture and the architecture decisions, new team members can only do two things:
* either (blindy) accept what they find and see or
* (blindy) change things

It goes without saying that both options aren't right.

Therefore, we suggest documenting the important architecture decisions. We use a simple tool such as https://github.com/npryce/adr-tools and store them in version control.
In larger projects with many teams we also establish a regular "architecture board / COI" with regular meetings.
Often, the architecture decisions are taken in such meetings.

The main purpose of this documentation is to:
* inform new team members about the previous architecture decisions and their purpose and backgrounds
* inform the whole team (including all people who were absent)
* create documentation that can be used to remember things (e.g. conventions, patterns, etc.)