The Power of RFCs and ADRs

The Missing Piece In Your Development Process

Fehmi Can Saglam
6 min readApr 2, 2023

As a developer, have you ever struggled to keep track of the rationale behind your project’s architectural decisions? Or maybe you’ve felt overwhelmed by the challenge of soliciting feedback from multiple stakeholders before making a crucial decision?

Enter RFCs and ADRs, your secret weapons for boosting efficiency and success in software development. With RFCs, you can get valuable input from stakeholders before making a decision, while ADRs provide a clear record of the reasoning behind key architectural decisions.

RFCs

RFC stands for Request for Comments, and it’s a document that software developers use to propose changes or improvements to a project. The purpose of an RFC is to solicit feedback and input from stakeholders before a decision is made. It’s a valuable tool for keeping everyone on the same page and ensuring that changes are well-considered before implementation.

When writing an RFC, it’s important to include the following information to ensure that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the proposed changes and can provide meaningful feedback:

Background
Provide a brief overview of the problem you’re trying to solve or the changes you’re proposing. This can include any relevant context or history.

Objectives
Clearly state the objectives of the proposed changes. This can include any…

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Fehmi Can Saglam

I’m a software engineer based in Berlin. I write mostly about programming and living healthy.