Architecture Decision Workbench
What is an architecture decision?
An architecture decision is a consequential technical choice with explicit context, viable alternatives, and accepted downsides. A useful decision record explains why the choice is defensible and what evidence could overturn it.
Step 1
Model
Model traffic, latency, consistency, data shape, geography, and operating capacity. Compare candidates before selecting the path your team is prepared to own.
Step 2
Observe
Leave with a ranked alternative, a visible serving path, explicit contradictions, required mitigations, and a shareable architecture decision record.
Step 3
Challenge
Choose a candidate, then inject a traffic spike, region loss, hot partition, or replication lag. Increase severity until the recommendation changes or an accepted downside becomes a user-visible failure.
Turn constraints into a defensible decision
Compare viable data paths, choose a candidate, then inject a failure to expose its accepted consequences.
Choose what you are willing to operate
Fitness scores explain the current inputs. Select any candidate to stress it, even when it is not the top recommendation.
Follow the selected serving path
Decision logic
- fits relational data and joins.
- keeps the operating model familiar.
Accepted downside
Shard deliberately before one writer becomes the permanent bottleneck.
Inject pressure before production does
Measure the design against the stated peak without an injected failure.
The selected path retains 2.8x headroom at the tested load.
Exposed contradictions
No direct contradiction is visible. That is a testable hypothesis, not proof that the design is complete.
Required mitigations
- 1Prefer managed infrastructure and one clear operational ownership boundary.