Hi all!

Today, TechCom[1] has approved a new policy: the Wikimedia Engineering Architecture Principles [2]. We have been discussing the Architecture Principles for about a year, by email, on mediawiki.org, at the hackathon, at the Technical Conference, and on phabricator. I'm very happy that after a final round through the RFC process[3] and three weeks of Last Call, we could now approve them as policy.

The architecture principles guide all Wikimedia engineering endeavors. They are derived from the Wikimedia movement's strategic direction and the Wikimedia Foundation's product strategy as well as established best practices of the software industry. They are informed by past experience as well as present needs and constraints, and are expected to evolve when these needs and constraints change.

The architecture principles are intended to guide engineering decisions on all levels, from detailed core review to high level RFCs. People with merge rights on software in production on WMF servers, as well as people responsible for technical decision making and planning for such systems, are expected to know and apply these principles.

If you haven't read them yet, please do so now!

Regards, Daniel

[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technical_Committee [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering_Architecture_Principles [3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T220657