The governance library holds the rules solutions are judged against, arranged in a strict chain. Principles are the top level; each policy sits under a principle, each standard under a policy and each pattern under a standard.
Everyone can read the library. Architects and governance owners draft items, and only a governance owner publishes or retires them. Solutions are assessed against this chain in the ARB.
Hangs under this
A list of the items one level down that sit under this item. For a principle these are its policies; for a policy, its standards; for a standard, its patterns. Each shows its reference, title and status.
- Click one to open it.
- To add a child, press Add on the library page and choose this item under Sits under.
Use the list to check that a principle is fully backed by policies before you rely on it in assessments.
Governance library
The library page opens on the Hierarchy tab, which shows the whole chain as a tree: principles, then the policies, standards and patterns beneath them, each with its status when it is not active.
- Pick a tab to look at one kind: Principles, Policies, Standards or Patterns. Each tab shows how many items there are.
- On a kind’s tab, read the table of reference, title, domain, status and owner.
- Press Add (architects and governance owners) to draft a new item.
If there are no principles yet, load them from Import and match. Click any reference to open the item.
Add or edit a governance item
The form for drafting a policy, standard or pattern. An item must sit under at least one parent of the level above, so a policy needs a principle, a standard needs a policy and a pattern needs a standard.
- Give it a title.
- Write the Statement: what must be true.
- Add the Rationale: why.
- Set the domain, the owner and a review-by date.
- Tick at least one parent under Sits under.
- Press Save.
It is saved as a draft until a governance owner publishes it. If there is nothing to attach to, create or publish the parent first.
A governance item
The page for one principle, policy, standard or pattern. It shows its type and status, domain, owner, review date, what it sits under, any aliases (“also known as”), the statement and the rationale.
- Edit reopens the form (architects and governance owners).
- Publish makes a draft active so it can be used in assessments. Retire takes it out of use. Both are for governance owners.
- Items that hang under this one are listed at the foot.
Retiring an item does not erase the decisions that were assessed against it.
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