Design Review Process

Design reviews are a core PAA activity. They provide structured evaluation of proposed technical changes before implementation begins.

When to request a review

Request a design review when you’re planning:

• New services or significant components
• Changes to data models or storage systems
• Integration with external systems or vendors
• Security-sensitive functionality
• Performance-critical paths
• Anything that makes you slightly nervous

When in doubt, request a review. Brief reviews of simple changes take minimal time and occasionally catch important issues.

Submitting for review

To initiate a design review, provide:

1. Problem statement — What are you trying to solve?
2. Proposed approach — How do you plan to solve it?
3. Alternatives considered — What else did you evaluate?
4. Open questions — Where do you want specific guidance?

Format doesn’t matter—a doc, a diagram, a Slack message. We’ll ask clarifying questions if needed.

Review process

Reviews follow this structure:

1. Intake — We acknowledge receipt and schedule review (within 24 hours)
2. Analysis — We evaluate the proposal against our assessment criteria
3. Discussion — Synchronous conversation to explore concerns and alternatives
4. Documentation — Written report with findings and recommendations

Most reviews complete within 3-5 business days. Urgent reviews can be expedited.

Assessment criteria

We evaluate designs against:

Criterion	Key Questions
Correctness	Does it solve the stated problem? Are edge cases handled?
Security	What’s the attack surface? How is access controlled?
Scalability	What happens at 10x load? Where are the bottlenecks?
Reliability	How does it fail? How do you know it’s failing?
Maintainability	Can the team understand and modify this in 6 months?
Operability	How do you deploy, monitor, and debug this?

Not every criterion applies to every review. We focus on what matters for your specific change.

After the review

Review findings fall into three categories:

• Blockers — Must be addressed before proceeding
• Recommendations — Should be addressed, but can proceed with awareness
• Observations — Worth noting, no action required

You decide how to proceed. Our role is to illuminate risks and trade-offs, not to gatekeep.