CTO Toolkit
Architecture Decision Template
Concise ADR format: context, decision, trade-offs, reconsideration triggers.
How to use this
Fill this when a choice creates lasting constraints. Keep it short enough that a new engineer can understand the decision in five minutes.
Decision record
- Title — short, searchable, outcome-oriented
- Status — proposed / accepted / superseded
- Context — forces, constraints, business drivers
- Decision — what we chose in one clear paragraph
- Options considered — at least one serious alternative
- Trade-offs — what we gain and what we knowingly give up
- Consequences — operational, cost, team and product impact
- Reconsider if — triggers that reopen the decision
Quality bar
- A stranger to the team can explain why this was chosen
- Failure modes are named, not implied
- Ownership of the decision and the system is clear
- The ADR is linked from the relevant codebase or platform wiki
When not to write an ADR
- Local implementation choices with no lasting organisational impact
- Temporary experiments explicitly time-boxed and disposable
- Decisions already fully covered by an existing standard
This is an original, generic framework for reuse. It is not proprietary employer material.