Arc42, ADRs, and Architecture Decisions: Documentation Teams Actually Use
Arc42 and ADRs help teams document architecture decisions without heavy process. Keep context, options, and consequences clear for onboarding, reviews, and future changes.
Architecture documentation usually fails for one reason: it is either too vague or too heavy to maintain.
A practical combination is Arc42 for structure and ADRs for decision history.
Related articles on this topic: Clean Architecture Dotnet and Cloud Migration Vorbereiten.
What Arc42 gives you
Arc42 helps teams document context, constraints, building blocks, and quality goals in a consistent shape.
That consistency makes onboarding and review easier.
What ADRs add
ADRs capture one decision at a time: context, options, decision, and consequences.
They answer the question teams keep asking months later: “Why did we choose this?”
Keep it lightweight
Useful documentation is short, current, and tied to active decisions. If updates take hours, nobody keeps it alive.
Starter template
For each major decision, record:
- problem and constraints
- alternatives considered
- final decision and trade-offs
- follow-up actions
If your team needs a practical documentation baseline, contact us.
Related reading
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