Thou shalt be kept accountable for all architectural decisions
Problem
Organizational architects often tend to make decisions, building the main structure of a given domain. When the structure is built, the architect moves on to the next project or organization.
Left behind are the people implementing the structure as requested. When when the structural problems in the architecture, the architect is somewhere else. The really bad thing about this is that the architect is not able to learn from this new knowledge.
Solution
The keyword is traceability: Document your decisions, background, what you want to achieve, and most importantly document the expected ROI for this decision.
Revisit the ROI periodically: - By your self. - By the team implementing your solution. - Business can also question the decisions, and wether they fulfill the ROI.
Source of ROI: * Business case for the task you want to solve.
Side note: Taking responsibility is not the same as automatically getting the blame when something goes wrong. Like people in all other roles, architects are only people and must be allowed to make mistakes. BUT, also like other people in important positions, architectural mistakes are costly and it is thus imperative that the architect learn from the mistakes.
Consequence
Failure of comply to this principle will result in this well know situation: Put 4 architects in the same room, and you will have at least 5 different opinions. The reason for this is that the architects don´t need to challenge their own decisions.