WA Government Architecture Decision Records

Status: Accepted | Date: 2026-07-11 | Review: 2027-07-11

Reusable architecture patterns for WA Government digital services, maintained by the Office of Digital Government (DGOV) Digital Transformation and Technology Unit (DTT).

For WA Public Sector Agencies

These decisions and patterns help agencies design secure digital services without starting from scratch. They support WA Government security outcomes but do not by themselves prove project or agency compliance.

Getting Started

1. Review the ADR Design Guardrails - Six guiding principles for all technology decisions
2. Use the Decision Finder - Match a project need to the right ADRs and reference architectures
3. Choose a Reference Architecture - Accepted architectures are active project-kickoff guidance. Proposed architectures require project approval and approval of their Proposed dependencies:
   • Proposed: AI-Assisted Digital Services - Low-risk AI assistance for services, staff workflows, CMS, and portals
   • Accepted: Content Management - Websites, intranets, and content portals
   • Accepted: Data Pipelines - Analytics, reporting, and data processing
   • Proposed: Federated Application Portal - Standalone apps using shared account, identity, notification, and SDK services
   • Proposed: Identity Federation - OIDC, legacy SAML, and privileged federation
   • Accepted: OpenAPI Backends - Agency-controlled HTTP APIs
4. Check the Compliance Mapping - Find which ADRs apply to your security and compliance requirements

Find Guidance by Need

If you need to...	Start with
Add AI assistance to a digital service or staff workflow	AI-Assisted Digital Services
Launch a public website, intranet, or portal	Content Management
Federate multiple standalone apps with shared account, identity, notification, or SDK services	Federated Application Portal
Build reports, analytics, or data processing	Data Pipelines
Add OIDC or legacy SAML federation	Identity Federation
Build an agency-controlled HTTP API	OpenAPI Backends
Check controls, standards, and policy coverage	Compliance Mapping
Check ADR status, review dates, and dependencies	ADR Catalogue
Review proposed guidance before adoption	Proposed Decision Backlog
Review whether guidance is current	Annual Review Schedule

Compliance Alignment

These ADRs align with:

• WA Cyber Security Policy
• ACSC Information Security Manual (ISM)
• WA Government AI Policy and Assurance Framework

Supporting training: DGOV Technical - DevSecOps Induction

Browse online | Printable long view

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Contributing

New ADRs document the context (problem), decision (solution), and consequences (trade-offs). See the Contributing Guide for workflow and templates.

For AI-assisted contributions, see the guidance in CONTRIBUTING.md.

All maintained guidance includes a review date. Set review dates one year after the document date unless a shorter review cycle is needed.

Repository Structure

This project uses mdBook to generate documentation:

• development/, operations/, security/ - ADRs by domain
• reference-architectures/ - Project kickoff templates
• SUMMARY.md - Navigation structure

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