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CCAR-P · Study Guide

← Domain 6: Stakeholder Communication & Lifecycle Management

6.4 · Lesson 4 of 5

Document architectures and provide implementation guidance

What You Need to Know

Documenting architectures for Claude systems means enabling builders and operators — not producing decorative diagrams. Pair system views with decision rationale, interface contracts, named ownership, and runbooks for common failure modes. Implementers should not need to reverse-engineer the ADR from hallway conversations.

At handoff, ops need runbooks for empty retrieval, tool failures, guardrail storms, and quality canary drops. Ownership tables prevent orphan components. Versioned contracts keep tool and output shapes stable across teams. Pretty diagrams without these artifacts fail exam items.

Documentation pack

  • Diagrams linked to ADR rationale and trust boundaries
  • Interface contracts for tools, APIs, and outputs
  • Named build / ops / eval ownership
  • Runbooks for common LLM and integration failures
  • Links to SLAs, eval suites, and monitoring dashboards

Decision rules

  • Diagrams plus decision rationale — not art alone.
  • Define interface contracts and version them.
  • Name owners for build, ops, and eval.
  • Include failure runbooks at handoff.
  • Validate that builders can implement without tribal knowledge.

Why art-only packs fail

A polished diagram can hide missing authZ contracts, unclear tool schemas, and no pager owner. When production fails, operators need steps — not aesthetics. Architects are judged on whether the pack makes safe implementation and operation possible.

Review checklist

  • Are diagrams linked to ADRs and boundaries?
  • Are tool/API/output contracts written?
  • Does every major component have an owner?
  • Are LLM failure runbooks included?
  • Can a new implementer start from the pack alone?

Exam stems with beautiful but empty docs reward adding contracts, ownership, and runbooks — not more color themes.

Exam application

Prefer packs that enable builders and operators. Distractors: abstract art only, no interfaces, no ownership, runbooks nowhere, marketing-only docs.

Exam traps

  • Pretty diagrams only

    Without contracts, ownership, and runbooks, implementers cannot build safely. Exam items punish art-only packs.

  • Missing interface contracts

    Builders re-derive APIs and tool schemas from folklore. Write contracts explicitly.

  • No named ownership

    Components without owners become orphaned at handoff.

  • Runbooks missing for LLM failures

    Hallucination, tool errors, and escalation paths need operator guidance at handoff.

Practice scenario

An architecture pack has a beautiful system diagram but no interface contracts, ownership, or failure runbooks. What should implementation guidance include?

Choose one answer

Build exercise

Build an implementation pack for a bank support copilot

40 minutes

What you'll learn

  • Link diagrams to ADR rationale
  • Write interface contracts
  • Assign ownership and failure runbooks
  • Validate a builder walkthrough

  1. Step 1

    Document the diagram with decision rationale

    Draw the end-to-end path and link each major choice to the ADR that justifies it. Annotate trust boundaries and HITL gates.

    Why: Diagrams without rationale force re-litigation. Link to decisions.

    You should see: Architecture diagram with ADR links and trust-boundary notes.

  2. Step 2

    Write interface contracts

    Specify tool schemas, API contracts, event payloads, and error shapes implementers must honor. Version them.

    Why: Contracts prevent incompatible builds across teams.

    You should see: Contract stubs for two tools and one output schema.

  3. Step 3

    Assign ownership and runbooks

    Name owners for each component. Write runbooks for common LLM failures: empty retrieval, tool 5xx, policy block storms, quality canary drops.

    Why: Handoff fails without owners and operator playbooks.

    You should see: Ownership table + three runbooks with first steps.

  4. Step 4

    Validate builders can implement without the architect in the room

    Have an implementer walk the pack and list questions. Fill gaps until they can start without tribal knowledge.

    Why: Docs succeed when strangers can build. Exam mindset: enablement, not decoration.

    You should see: Review notes from a builder walkthrough.

Sources