Ask HN: Owner of Architectural Decision Records

[boniface316]

Who is the owner ADR(architectural decision records)?

Assume that I am a company and I hired one of the big company (AWS, GCP or Azure) to build some cloud products. Their solutions architect must keep have an ADR right? if yes, do I own the right to keep the ADR after the completion or they go back to the company we hired?

I would really appreciate any feedback on this.

[kodah]

ADRs usually aren't something you share externally (take it with a grain of salt, I don't work in consulting).

In the past, I've pushed mine up to a central repository that people can search easily.

[boniface316]

I am going to take on a senior role in a really old organization. They dont have any ADRs. They informed me that they did the architecture design using contractors/consultants so they never provided it. If we pay for their service, aren't we supposed to be the owner of the ADRs?

In my previous company, we owned the ADRs from external contractors and consulants.

[kodah]

Maybe they should, but I'd ask a different question. Did your company not give them the ADRs? ADRs are supposed to be high level decisions, like the decision to use REST or gRPC across an enterprise as a public or private API standard. If an application was built to a spec by your company, I'd assume they'd be making decisions like that.

[boniface316]

I wish that I could reveal the name of the organization that I taking on the position with. They are in a rough shape.

The organization provided project specification but not architectural specification. The consulting company has been working with them for almost 3 years now and providing solutions architect services.