Planning
System Governance
Models for owning, maintaining, and evolving the system over time
Key Insight
Governance defines who can change the system, how changes are proposed and approved, and who resolves conflicts. Without governance, systems either stagnate (no updates) or fragment (uncoordinated updates). Three models: centralized (one team owns all), federated (teams contribute, system team curates), open/guild (community-driven). Even small teams need informal governance.
Key Points
- •Centralized: high consistency, slow to respond to product needs
- •Federated: product teams contribute; system team reviews and curates — best balance at scale
- •Open/guild: community-driven; works for open source or very large organizations
- •Every model needs: contribution process, review criteria, and deprecation policy
- •Governance must be lightweight enough that people use it
Guidelines
- ✓Define who can propose patterns and what the review process looks like
- ✓Establish review criteria before contributions arrive — not during
- ✓Set review SLA targets (respond within 5 business days)
- ✓Create a deprecation policy with a migration path and sunset timeline
- ✓Run quarterly system reviews to assess what needs updating
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