Purpose

This Standard defines Architecture Reviews as the primary engineering governance mechanism for evaluating engineering artifacts prior to acceptance.

Architecture Reviews ensure engineering quality, consistency, traceability, and compliance with AAOE Standards.

Standard

Engineering artifacts shall undergo an Architecture Review before being accepted into the governed engineering baseline.

Architecture Reviews shall evaluate architecture rather than implementation details.

Approval represents governance acceptance rather than implementation completion.

Principles

Architecture Reviews shall:

• preserve engineering quality
• verify Standards compliance
• verify traceability
• verify architectural consistency
• identify risks
• document recommendations
• produce auditable review decisions

Review Scope

Architecture Reviews may evaluate:

• Specifications
• Standards
• ADRs
• Reference Architectures
• Case Studies
• Implementations
• Implementation Reports

Review Outcomes

Architecture Reviews may result in:

• Approved
• Approved with Recommendations
• Revisions Requested
• Rejected

Review outcomes shall be documented.

Engineering Workflow

Engineering Artifact
        ↓
Architecture Review
        ↓
Findings
        ↓
Decision
        ↓
Approval
        ↓
Merge

Traceability

Architecture Reviews should reference:

• Reviewed Artifact
• Applicable Standards
• ADRs
• Findings
• Recommendations
• Final Decision

Exceptions

Minor editorial corrections may not require Architecture Reviews.

Governed engineering artifacts shall require review.

Relationship to Human-Governed Engineering

This Standard operationalizes STD-0008 — Human-Governed Engineering.

Architecture Reviews are one of the primary mechanisms through which human governance is exercised.

Relationship to the Operating Model

Applied through:

• Work Orders
• Implementation Reports
• Approval Gates
• Release Management

Compliance

Engineering work conforms when:

• Reviews are documented.
• Decisions are traceable.
• Findings are addressed.
• Approval precedes merge.

Future Evolution

May define:

• Automated Architecture Reviews
• AI-Assisted Reviews
• Review Metrics
• Multi-Reviewer Governance
• Continuous Architecture Reviews