Engineering Decision Record (EDR)

Projects grow and evolve, and many decisions are made over time that affect the engineering practices at play. Often these decisions are made on the fly, and gradually the context and details of the decisions are lost as memories fade and people leave. We’re left doing things a certain way because “that’s the way we do things”.

Occasionally a person may wonder why we do things the way we do. "Without understanding the rationale or consequences, this person has only two choices: blindly accept the decision, or blindly change it." ([Documenting Architecture Decisions](https://cognitect.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-architecture-decisions))

This is not a great state of affairs. Having a standard process for proposing and adopting engineering improvements makes it easier to drive positive change. The Engineering Decision Record (EDR) is a lightweight way to do just that.