Decision Roles
Assign who writes, who reviews, and who decides — so decisions don't stall and aren't unilateral.
Why
Architecture decisions stall when no one knows who's supposed to write the ADR, and they go wrong when one person decides unilaterally without review. Decision roles (writer, reviewers, decider) make the process explicit: the writer drafts, the reviewers check for blind spots and alternatives, the decider approves (often the tech lead, sometimes the principal engineer for irreversible decisions). This prevents both the 'decision by committee that never converges' and the 'decision by the loudest person in the meeting'. With roles assigned, a decision has a clear path from proposal to recorded outcome.
When
Define once per team. Takes 1 hour. Apply to every ADR.
How
1. Define the default roles: - Writer: the engineer who proposed the decision (or is most affected) - Reviewers: 2-3 engineers with relevant expertise (always include an ops person) - Decider: tech lead for reversible decisions, principal/architect for irreversible 2. For each ADR, assign the roles explicitly in the document 3. Writer drafts within 2 days; reviewers comment within 3 days; decider decides within 1 4. If reviewers disagree, the decider resolves — decisions don't stall on disagreement 5. For irreversible decisions (DB, cloud provider), require principal + tech-lead sign-off 6. Record the roles + the outcome in the ADR so it's auditable later
Example
ADR-022: "Use ClickHouse for analytics" Roles: Writer: Alice (proposed, owns the analytics service) Reviewers: Bob (ops, runs Postgres), Carol (data eng, knows column stores) Decider: Dave (tech lead — reversible within a service) Timeline: Day 1: Alice drafts ADR with alternatives (Postgres, BigQuery, ClickHouse) Day 3: Bob flags "new on-call skill"; Carol confirms ClickHouse fits access patterns Day 4: Dave approves; ADR-022 status → Accepted Outcome recorded: roles, date, reasoning, alternatives considered.
Common Problems
- ⚠Decision by committee — everyone reviews, no one decides, and the ADR sits in 'Proposed' for months; assign a single decider.
Best Practices
- ✓Time-box each role (writer 2d, reviewers 3d, decider 1d) — without time-boxes, decisions drift and the team loses momentum.
- ✓Rotate the writer role so decision-writing skill spreads — if one person writes all ADRs, the team can't make decisions without them.