Security Architecture Decision Record

Security Architecture Decision Record Template

A Security Architecture Decision Record is an essential document for IT security teams, helping to maintain a clear audit trail of security decisions and their rationale. This template enables security architects, IT managers, and compliance officers to systematically capture architectural decisions, analyze threat model impacts, compare alternative solutions, and document approved security patterns.

Why Security Architecture Decision Records Matter

In today's threat landscape, documenting security decisions is crucial for compliance, risk management, and knowledge transfer. This template helps security teams maintain transparency around architectural choices, ensuring that future team members understand the context and reasoning behind critical security implementations.

Who Should Use This Template

This template is designed for IT professionals, security architects, CISOs, compliance officers, and IT managers working in industries that require rigorous security documentation—including software development, financial services, healthcare, and enterprise technology.

Key Features

The Security Architecture Decision Record template captures:

• Decision context and drivers that prompted the architectural review
• Comprehensive threat model impact analysis assessing risks and mitigations
• Alternative solution comparison with security, cost, and operational trade-offs
• Approved pattern documentation aligned with organizational standards
• Stakeholder sign-off and implementation tracking

Streamline Security Workflows with Paperform

This template integrates seamlessly into your security operations workflow. Use Stepper (stepper.io) to automatically route completed decision records to security review boards, trigger approval workflows, sync documentation to your knowledge base, and notify relevant teams when architectural patterns are approved. Connect to tools like Jira, Confluence, Slack, and your ISMS platform to maintain a centralized security architecture repository.

Professional, Compliant, and Audit-Ready

Built on Paperform's SOC 2 Type II compliant platform, this template ensures your security decision records meet enterprise security standards. With conditional logic, structured documentation fields, and automated notifications, you can maintain audit-ready records while reducing administrative overhead for your security team.