Share design standards

Sharing Design Standards for Consistency and Innovation
Sharing design standards across teams helps increase awareness of best practices, promote consistency, and maximize the effectiveness of development efforts. Documenting and maintaining up-to-date design standards enables teams to follow guidelines that align with organizational goals. Providing mechanisms for adding, changing, or requesting exceptions to standards helps ensure that they do not become a constraint on innovation.

Document and Share Best Practices

Document and share best practices across all teams to ensure alignment and maximize the benefits of collective development efforts. Design standards should cover areas such as coding practices, architectural guidelines, security, and operational requirements. Consistent use of best practices reduces variability, enhances the quality of deliverables, and ensures that projects align with organizational goals.

Keep Standards Up-to-Date

Regularly review and update design standards as the architecture evolves and new best practices emerge. As technologies and business requirements change, design standards must be updated to ensure that they remain relevant and effective. Keeping standards current helps teams stay aligned with the latest industry trends and internal strategies.

Provide a Mechanism for Change Requests

Ensure that mechanisms exist for teams to request additions, changes, or exceptions to design standards. If teams encounter situations where existing standards hinder their ability to innovate or meet specific project needs, they should have a clear process to propose changes. This flexibility helps ensure that standards remain an enabler rather than a constraint.

Enforce Standards with Room for Innovation

Enforce shared design standards while allowing flexibility for unique requirements. Teams should follow common guidelines, but the organization should also allow for adaptations where justified. This balanced approach ensures that standards promote quality and consistency while encouraging creativity and innovation.

Increase Awareness and Encourage Adoption

Promote awareness of shared design standards among all team members by providing training sessions, documentation, and easy access to reference materials. Encourage teams to adopt these standards as part of their workflow, highlighting the benefits of consistency and alignment across projects.

Supporting Questions

• How are design standards documented and shared across teams?
• How are design standards kept up-to-date as the architecture evolves?
• What mechanisms are in place to request changes or exceptions to design standards?

Roles and Responsibilities

Architect
Responsibilities:

• Develop, document, and share best practices and design standards across teams.
• Regularly review and update standards to reflect evolving architectural and technological requirements.

Team Lead
Responsibilities:

• Ensure that team members are aware of and adhere to shared design standards.
• Request changes or exceptions to standards when they impact project requirements or innovation.

Standards Governance Committee
Responsibilities:

• Evaluate requests for additions, changes, or exceptions to shared design standards.
• Ensure that updates to standards align with the organization’s objectives and are communicated to all relevant teams.

Artifacts

• Design Standards Document: A comprehensive document detailing best practices, architectural guidelines, and coding standards.
• Change Request Log: A log capturing requests for changes or exceptions to design standards, including the status and outcome of each request.
• Standards Training Material: Training materials that provide an overview of shared standards, including their purpose, scope, and benefits.