Module
Module 5 of 6Lesson 1 of 2~16 min

Framing a trade-off and recording it in an ADR

A year later, nobody remembers why the team picked that architecture unless the decision was written down. The lesson helps a PM state a trade-off explicitly, scale the analysis to how reversible a choice is, and write an Architecture Decision Record the whole team can use.

Take this lesson: your first course is freeSee the full syllabus

Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to frame an architecture trade-off ("we favor X at the expense of Y"), judge whether a decision is reversible and therefore deserves more or less analysis, and write an ADR with context, options, decision, consequences and a review condition.

Topics covered

  • ADR
  • architecture decision record
  • architecture trade-off
  • reversible decision

Where it fits

Deciding and recording

How do you choose between two options, keep a record of the decision and deal with technical debt?

Lessons in this module

  1. Framing a trade-off and recording it in an ADR (this lesson)
  2. Technical debt, a product decision

What you will learn in the course

This lesson is part of the course Read and challenge a technical architecture

  • Read an architecture diagram (context and container levels of the C4 model) and spot its components, flows, boundaries and gray areas.
  • Turn vague expectations ("fast", "reliable", "scalable") into measurable non-functional requirements, written as quality attribute scenarios.
  • Compare monolith, modular monolith and microservices, then synchronous calls and asynchronous processing, based on the team, the load and the consequences for the user.
  • Assess data choices (source of truth, transactions, replicas, consistency), scaling and caching, and spot the bottleneck of a user journey.
  • Assess dependencies on third-party services (composite availability, degraded mode, vendor lock-in) and a build or buy decision.
  • Frame an architecture trade-off, record it in an ADR and treat technical debt as a product decision.
  • Run an architecture review of your product or of a proposal, with ten questions, a risk register and explicit trade-offs.

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