Glossary · Phase 11 · Professional practice
Architecture decision record
A short note of one significant decision: its context, the decision and its consequences.
An architecture decision record (ADR) is a short note for each significant decision: the context, the decision, and its consequences. A folder of ADRs tells future engineers why things are the way they are.
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The diff shows what changed. The message is for why.
Learn it properly
Writing for engineers · READMEs, design docs, commit messages and bug reports people can act on. About 35 minutes.
Other terms from the same lesson
- design doc: A document written before building something big: the problem, goals, non-goals, proposal, alternatives and risks.
- imperative mood: Writing as a command, such as "Add retries". The convention for commit message subjects.
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