Checklist: Architectural Decisions
This checklist provides a set of questions that can be used as a guide when validating each decision in the Architectural Decisions artifact.
Relationships
Check Items
Is the nature of the problem clearly stated?
Is the decision itself clear and unambiguous?
Have motivations and assumptions for the decision been included?
Have all considered alternatives been documented?
Have all options and alternative approaches that were considered as part of the decision making process been documented?  Has the reasoning for not selecting the alternatives been documented? Have you considered technologies for competitive advantage?
Has the rationale behind the decision been explained?

Has the reasoning behind the selected option been adequately justified? Can someone new to the project understand why the decision was made?

The goal is to prevent revisiting the decision unnecessarily.

Does the decision have the right level of sponsorship necessary to enforce it?
Does the decision comply with over-arching policies, guidelines or standards?
Has the decision been categorized appropriately?

Does the decision have a unique identifier, subject and topic area to allow it to be easily managed?