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.
The Reviews workspace lists overdue active records and links directly to the Lifecycle tab for remediation.
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 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Additional terminal or later-life states include Superseded, Deprecated, and Expired.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:
- Create or identify the replacement Architecture Decision.
- Move the replacement to
Accepted. - From the older decision, choose the accepted replacement.
- OpenEA creates
replacement → supersedes → old decision. - The older decision transitions to
Superseded.
This preserves why an earlier decision existed while making the current decision clear.