documentation-criteria

Documentation Creation Criteria

This file holds the routing decision: which documents a change requires and where they live. What to write inside one is defined by its template, linked from Storage Locations.

What Each Document Fixes

Each document fixes one class of decision that the repository alone cannot supply. An unfilled section becomes a guess made later by the consumer named below, with no record of what was assumed.

• PRD — Fixes the business outcome and the acceptance criteria later work traces to. Its AC IDs are the traceability keys that the Design Doc, UI Spec, and test selection reuse; without them each consumer re-derives requirements from prose and the link between a test and the value it protects is lost. Implementation details belong to the Design Doc, selection rationale to an ADR, phases and task breakdown to the Work Plan.

• ADR — Records one durable technical choice and the options it beat, so later work can tell a deliberate decision from an accident. Without it a future change either re-runs the same comparison or silently reverses it. Accepted records the currently selected means, not an obligation to retain it: when later evidence supports a smaller sufficient choice, update or supersede the decision while the confirmed outcome, desired-future requirements, and non-goals remain true. End-to-end implementation design belongs to the Design Doc, schedule and repository tasks to the Work Plan.

• UI Spec — Records screen structure, transitions, component/state contracts, and visual acceptance before components exist, so decomposition is decided before implementation instead of per-component during it. Create one when those decisions remain open; reuse an approved UI Spec or go straight to the Design Doc when one evident repository-supported pattern already determines them. Technical implementation and API contracts belong to the Design Doc.

• Design Doc — Records the complete implementation design for the confirmed scope: flows, contracts, change impact, and verification strategy. Task execution treats it as the primary technical baseline, so implementation does not silently invent missing How. The same baseline turns anything written in it into planned and implemented work, so release execution, production operation, and other work outside the repository change stay out of it; a confirmed requirement that describes such work is met by designing the capability it uses. When repository evidence invalidates technical How while confirmed outcome, desired-future requirements, and non-goals remain true, correct the implementation and the affected technical artifact through their owning workflow without reopening product requirements. Technology selection rationale belongs to an ADR, schedule and assignments to the Work Plan.