8. Add Governance, Reviews, Principles, and Decisions

This chapter adds the two governance object types that complete the standard OpenEA Community metamodel:

• Architecture Principle
• Architecture Decision

You will also use controlled governance transitions and the review workflow instead of editing governance status directly.

For the general workflow, see Reviews and Architecture Decisions. For governance concepts and history behavior, see Governance and History.

Goal

At the end of this chapter:

• All 12 standard OpenEA object types are represented in Acme Bank.
• The base repository contains 32 objects.
• The Architecture Principle is Approved.
• The Architecture Decision is Accepted.
• The decision is connected to the principle, Java 21, Digital Banking, and Digital Banking Modernization.
• Regulatory Reporting has an intentionally overdue next review date.
• The base repository contains 53 relationships.

1. Create the Architecture Principle

Select Explore → New → Architecture Principle.

Enter:

Field	Value
Name	Prefer Strategic Technologies
Description	Acme Bank principle requiring new solutions to use technologies identified as Adopt or Strategic.
Record status	Active
Owner organization	Enterprise Architecture
Owner role	Enterprise Architect
Statement	New solutions should use technologies designated Adopt or Strategic unless an approved exception exists.
Rationale	Standard technologies reduce operational complexity, supportability risk, and duplicated engineering effort.
Implications	Architecture reviews should identify non-strategic technologies and document exceptions.
Category	Technology
Owner	Enterprise Architecture
Tags	Acme Bank
Source	Manual
Confidence	High
Review frequency	Annual

You may leave Effective Date and Review Date blank for now.

Principle status on creation

The form contains the schema-driven Principle Status field, but OpenEA Community 1.5.2 forces a newly created Architecture Principle to Draft. Later status changes are controlled by the Lifecycle workflow.

Select Create object. OpenEA saves the principle and opens the new Prefer Strategic Technologies record.

2. Approve the principle through the Lifecycle workflow

On the Prefer Strategic Technologies record that OpenEA opened after creation, select the Lifecycle tab.

The current principle status should be Draft.

OpenEA 1.5.2 allows these principle transitions:

Draft → Proposed → Approved → Deprecated → Retired
          │
          └──────→ Draft

For this tutorial:

1. From Draft, choose Proposed and apply the transition.
2. Confirm the record now shows Proposed.
3. Choose Approved and apply the transition.
4. Confirm the principle status is now Approved.

Do not edit the object to change this status; use the Lifecycle transition controls.

3. Connect architecture to the principle

Open Digital Banking → Relationships and create:

Source	Relationship	Target
Digital Banking	conforms to	Prefer Strategic Technologies

Open Java 21 → Relationships and create:

Source	Relationship	Target
Java 21	conforms to	Prefer Strategic Technologies

These relationships make conformance an explicit part of the architecture model rather than a comment buried in a record.

4. Create the Architecture Decision

Select Explore → New → Architecture Decision.

Enter:

Field	Value
Name	Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21
Description	Architecture decision to standardize modern digital-channel services on Java 21.
Record status	Active
Owner organization	Enterprise Architecture
Owner role	Enterprise Architect
Context	Acme Bank is modernizing digital banking services and needs a supported strategic application runtime.
Decision	Use Java 21 as the standard runtime for newly modernized digital-channel services.
Rationale	Java 21 is current and aligns with the Acme Bank strategic technology direction.
Alternatives Considered	Continue Java 8; move all services to a different runtime.
Consequences	Teams must upgrade build pipelines and application dependencies to Java 21.
Decision Date	2026-08-15
Effective Date	2026-09-01
Review Date	2027-09-01
Decision Owner	Enterprise Architect
Approving Body	Architecture Review Board
Tags	Acme Bank
Source	Manual
Confidence	High
Review frequency	Annual

Leave Exception Expiration blank.

OpenEA controls the decision number and initial status

Decision Number is generated automatically. OpenEA assigns a value such as ADR-0001; the exact number depends on other Architecture Decisions already in the repository.

Decision Status is also controlled. A new Architecture Decision is forced to Draft in OpenEA Community 1.5.2, and later status changes are performed through the Lifecycle workflow.

Select Create object. OpenEA saves the decision and opens the new Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21 record.

5. Accept the Architecture Decision

On the Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21 record that OpenEA opened after creation, select the Lifecycle tab.

The standard path used here is:

Draft → Proposed → Accepted

Perform these transitions:

1. Draft → Proposed
2. Proposed → Accepted

Confirm that the decision now shows Accepted.

OpenEA also supports later states including Superseded and Deprecated, but do not use those states in the base tutorial.

6. Connect the decision to the architecture

From Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21 → Relationships, create:

Source	Relationship	Target
Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21	conforms to	Prefer Strategic Technologies
Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21	selects	Java 21
Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21	affects	Digital Banking
Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21	affects	Digital Banking Modernization

This creates an explainable chain:

Architecture Principle
        ▲
        │ conforms to
Architecture Decision
        │
        ├── selects → Java 21
        ├── affects → Digital Banking
        └── affects → Digital Banking Modernization

If an architect later asks why Java 21 was selected for the modernization, the repository contains an explicit decision record and relationships rather than relying on institutional memory.

7. Create an intentionally overdue review

Now use the normal review workflow on Regulatory Reporting.

1. Select Explore and open Regulatory Reporting.
2. Select the Lifecycle tab.
3. In Review notes, enter:

Tutorial review intentionally schedules an overdue next date to demonstrate findings.

1. In Next review date, enter:

2026-01-01

1. Select Mark reviewed.

The next-review date is intentionally in the past. Leave it that way until the remediation chapter.

Review frequency behavior

If you leave Next review date blank when marking a record reviewed, OpenEA can derive the next date from the record's configured review frequency. Here you enter a past date explicitly because the tutorial needs a deterministic overdue-review condition.

8. Inspect the Reviews workspace

Select Reviews from the Governance section of the navigation.

Regulatory Reporting should appear because its explicit next-review date is in the past. The Attention reason column explains why the row needs attention and can also show related review context, such as no completed review, a Needs Review governance state, or low/unknown confidence when those conditions apply.

The Reviews workspace preserves the same overdue-review scope; the explanation does not create a second source of architecture records or broaden which records qualify.

9. Verify all twelve object types

You have now created at least one of every standard OpenEA Community 1.5.2 object type:

Domain	Object type	Acme example
Business	Business Product	Consumer Banking
Business	Business Capability	Customer Management
Business	Business Process	Open Customer Account
Business	Organization	Acme Bank
Business	Role	Enterprise Architect
Application	Application	Digital Banking
Application	Application Service	Digital Account Service
Information	Data Object	Customer
Technology	Technology	Java 21
Change	Initiative / Project	Digital Banking Modernization
Governance	Architecture Principle	Prefer Strategic Technologies
Governance	Architecture Decision	Standardize Digital Channels on Java 21

The base Acme Bank model is now complete enough to exercise the analysis features.

Continue to Use Findings and Analytics.