Modeling and Sharing Architectural Decisions, Part 1: Concepts From Retrospective Decision Capturing to Proactive Decision Modeling

Architectural decisions capture precious knowledge that is worth sharing. Text templates and tools designed solely for documentation purposes fail to facilitate such knowledge exchange. In this series of paper, learn about a domain meta model specifically designed to capture and share architectural decisions, explore a reusable architectural decision model for SOA, and find out more about Architectural Decision Knowledge Wiki, a Web 2.0 collaboration platform. This first paper outlines why and how architects should consciously identify, make, and enforce architectural decisions.