How many principles should an organization typically have?

The skill recommends a maximum of 5-7 core principles to ensure they remain memorable and actionable rather than becoming ignored noise.

What frameworks is this skill based on?

The skill is grounded in industry-recognized standards including TOGAF, Gartner, and Simon Brown’s architectural communication models.

Can it help resolve team disagreements on technical direction?

Yes, it facilitates the creation of a 'Trade-off Hierarchy' to provide objective guidance when competing priorities like consistency and availability conflict.

How does this skill help with architecture reviews?

It provides a standardized framework to evaluate project proposals against established organizational principles, making reviews more objective and consistent.

Architecture Principles Governance

Name: Architecture Principles Governance
Author: sethdford

bysethdford

•

Cloud Infrastructure

Defines and communicates foundational architecture principles to align engineering decisions with organizational strategy.

This skill facilitates the creation of a robust architectural framework by helping teams define core values, derive actionable principles, and establish clear decision-making rules. Grounded in industry standards like TOGAF and Gartner, it guides users through identifying trade-off hierarchies and documenting exemptions, ensuring that technical debt is managed and that all stakeholders—from product to engineering—remain aligned on the organization's long-term technical vision and operational goals.

Key Features

01Anti-pattern mitigation to prevent principle fatigue and stagnation

025 GitHub stars

03Standardized exemption documentation and remediation planning

04Framework-grounded principle definition based on TOGAF and Gartner

05Explicit trade-off hierarchy mapping for conflicting priorities

06Actionable decision rule derivation from high-level philosophy

Use Cases

01Refreshing legacy guidelines to align with modern serverless and microservices patterns

02Establishing a 'Cloud-first' or 'API-driven' strategy for a scaling engineering department

03Resolving architectural conflicts between innovation speed and system reliability

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add sethdford/claude-skills architecture-principles

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Key Features

01Anti-pattern mitigation to prevent principle fatigue and stagnation

025 GitHub stars

03Standardized exemption documentation and remediation planning

04Framework-grounded principle definition based on TOGAF and Gartner

05Explicit trade-off hierarchy mapping for conflicting priorities

06Actionable decision rule derivation from high-level philosophy

Use Cases

01Refreshing legacy guidelines to align with modern serverless and microservices patterns

02Establishing a 'Cloud-first' or 'API-driven' strategy for a scaling engineering department

03Resolving architectural conflicts between innovation speed and system reliability

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add sethdford/claude-skills architecture-principles

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT