What an Architecture Decision Is vs a Design Decision

This generated surface maps a learner-facing curriculum unit to its canonical source routes.

Curriculum surface

• Open learner-facing unit
• Curriculum path: content/curriculum/architecture/semester-07-architecture-ddd/module-05-architecture-decision-records-reviews/concepts/cluster-01-architecture-decisions-as-artifacts/01-architecture-vs-design-decision-primary.md
• App: architecture
• Semester: semester-07-architecture-ddd
• Module: module-05-architecture-decision-records-reviews
• Unit kind: concept
• Curation level: module_curated

Learning objectives

• Explain What an Architecture Decision Is vs a Design Decision as part of an architecture feedback loop involving decisions, review, and long-term consequences.
• Use What an Architecture Decision Is vs a Design Decision to make architecture work inspectable: what was decided, why, what risks remain, and how success will be measured.
• Use fundamentals-of-software-architecture, just-enough-software-architecture to connect the learner explanation to ADRs, review methods, and architectural fitness functions.

Prerequisites

• Comfort with architecture tradeoffs, modular patterns, DDD boundaries, and API design decisions from the earlier semester modules.

Source books

• fundamentals-of-software-architecture
• just-enough-software-architecture

Source routes

Fundamentals Of Software Architecture

• /books/fundamentals-of-software-architecture via Fundamentals: Architecture decisions, Fundamentals: Defining software architecture

Just Enough Software Architecture

• /books/just-enough-software-architecture via Just Enough: Make rational architecture choices, Just Enough: Software architecture

Supporting curriculum routes

No supporting curriculum routes linked yet.

External enrichment

• ADR GitHub Organization (official_docs_companion) - Useful when the learner needs concrete ADR templates and ecosystem conventions rather than theory alone.
• SEI: Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (official_docs_companion) - Provides the formal review-method background behind risk-driven architectural evaluation.

AI companion modes

• Explain simply
• Socratic tutor
• Challenge my understanding
• Diagnose my confusion
• Connect forward / backward

Source-of-truth note

This teaching unit is learner-facing guidance assembled from multiple canonical book routes. Use the listed source books as the primary conceptual spine for What an Architecture Decision Is vs a Design Decision, and treat outside material as supporting enrichment only.