Every project accumulates decisions: why one database was selected, why an API has a particular shape, or why a performance compromise was accepted. Without a record, the next team must pay to rediscover the context.
Our format is deliberately small. One short document records the context, rejected options, the reason for the choice and known consequences. It is dated, owned and limited to two pages.
The benefit appears quickly. New team members understand the product in days rather than weeks. A change of supplier becomes less risky, and the client is no longer dependent on one person or on us.
Decision records age alongside the code. When a choice becomes obsolete, it is marked as superseded and linked to the decision that replaced it. The history remains visible without pretending that the original context never existed.
It is a quiet discipline, but it turns fragile software into a product that another team can safely operate and evolve.
