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Reviews and Architecture Decisions

OpenEA combines periodic review tracking with ADR-style Architecture Decision records.

Reviews

An architecture object can have a review frequency of:

  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
  • Semiannual
  • Annual

Contributors, Architects, and Architecture Administrators can mark a record reviewed from its Lifecycle area.

A review can include:

  • Notes
  • Explicit next review date

If no explicit next date is supplied, OpenEA derives one from the object's review frequency.

Reviews workspace

The Reviews workspace preserves the OpenEA Community 1.5.2 scope: it lists non-archived records whose explicit Next Review Date is in the past.

The Attention reason column explains why each row needs attention. The overdue date is always shown, and OpenEA also adds applicable review context such as:

  • no completed review has been recorded
  • Governance Status is Needs Review
  • Confidence is Unknown or Low

These additional reasons explain the row; they do not broaden the workspace to records that are not already overdue.

Select the object name to open its Lifecycle tab, where an authorized reviewer can record a new review and schedule the next date.

Architecture Decisions

Architecture Decisions are repository objects with fields for:

  • Decision number
  • Context
  • Decision
  • Rationale
  • Alternatives considered
  • Consequences
  • Decision status
  • Decision/effective/review dates
  • Decision owner
  • Approving body
  • Exception expiration

OpenEA assigns a display identifier such as ADR-0001.

Decision number and initial status are controlled

The Decision Number is generated automatically. New Architecture Decisions are created in Draft; use the Lifecycle workflow for later status transitions.

Decision lifecycle

The normal decision flow is:

Draft → Proposed → Accepted
              └──► Rejected

Additional terminal or later-life states include Superseded, Deprecated, and Expired.

Superseding a decision

To supersede an existing decision:

  1. Create or identify the replacement Architecture Decision.
  2. Move the replacement to Accepted.
  3. From the older decision, choose the accepted replacement.
  4. OpenEA creates replacement → supersedes → old decision.
  5. The older decision transitions to Superseded.

This preserves why an earlier decision existed while making the current decision clear.