Framework-agnostic register supporting TOGAF, Zachman, and FEAF out of the box. Every principle traceable to the ADRs that honour it and the services it shapes. No more PowerPoint principles that nobody references in real decisions.
“Until the principle showed up next to a real ADR review, nobody had ever invoked it. Now it’s the first thing they cite.”
§ Chief Architect, NHS trustWhichever framework your organisation uses — or your own custom set — the register stays opinion-light and traceability-heavy.
Out-of-the-box templates aligned to each framework’s principle structure. Mix freely.
Add your own. Same traceability rules apply — principles always link forward to decisions, never live in a vacuum.
Every ADR references the principles it honours, challenges, or amends. Live count of references on each principle.
Through ADRs, principles trace through to the services they shape. Drift detected automatically.
Principles evolve. Versioned, with reason for change. ADRs reference the version they were decided under.
Every change to a principle — addition, amendment, retirement — immutably logged.
Most organisations have EA principles. They live in a Confluence page, a PDF appended to the last architecture strategy document, or a slide in an induction deck. They are cited rarely, enforced never, and updated when someone remembers to. The result is that architecture decisions are made without reference to them — not because architects are careless, but because there is no structural connection between the principle and the decision-making process.
When a principle is violated — a new point-solution procured that contradicts the single-vendor cloud strategy, a bespoke integration built that bypasses the approved API gateway — it is usually discovered retrospectively. At audit, or when the technical debt compounds into an incident.
HelixGate makes EA principles a first-class governance artefact. Each principle is owned, versioned, and referenced in the ADR review workflow. When an architecture decision enters peer review, it is assessed against the relevant principles: does this decision honour them, challenge them, or require an exception? If an exception is granted, it is recorded — not ignored.
This matters most in regulated environments where architecture decisions carry regulatory exposure. A principle that prohibits unencrypted data transfer between environments is not aspirational — it is a control. An ADR that references and confirms compliance with that principle is evidence. An ADR that silently ignores it is a gap that an ISO 27001 auditor will find.
Bring your current principles — we’ll show how they map to TOGAF/Zachman/FEAF and how the traceability works in 30 minutes.
