Data Store Fields

What it’s for: A description of what data this store holds, what technology implements it, and its role in the solution.
What to include:
- What the store is and what data it holds.
- The technology and hosting environment (e.g. “PostgreSQL 15 hosted on Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server”).
- The role in the solution: is it the primary operational store, an archive, a cache, a read replica?
- Any key constraints — e.g. data residency requirements, access restrictions, retention policy.
Examples:
- "Primary operational database for the procurement application. PostgreSQL hosted on Azure. Holds all active purchase orders, supplier records, and invoice data. Data must remain within the UK region at all times."
- "Cloudflare R2 object store for inbound invoice file drops. Receives CSV and XML files from supplier EDI systems. Files are processed by the ingestion service within 15 minutes of arrival and then archived in place."

Relationship	What to link
Contains Data Set	The Data Sets held in this store — the logical data collections that this physical store houses
Generates Stream	Streams or message queues that this store publishes events to (e.g. a change data capture feed)
Receives Stream	Streams or message queues that deliver data into this store (e.g. an event consumer that writes to a data lake)

Relationship	What to link
Uses Technology	The technology that implements this store (e.g. PostgreSQL, Redis, Azure Blob Storage, Snowflake)

Relationship	What to link
Supports Business Requirement	Business Requirements this store is needed to satisfy
Supports Non-Functional Requirement	NFRs that apply to this store — availability, performance, data retention, security
Supports Transition Requirement	Transition Requirements this store addresses (e.g. a new store introduced as part of a migration)

Relationship	What to link
Uses Availability	The availability mechanisms applied to this store (replication, failover, uptime targets)
Uses Scalability	The scalability mechanisms for this store (partitioning, horizontal scaling, read replicas)
Uses Recoverability	The backup and recovery mechanisms (backup schedule, RPO/RTO, point-in-time recovery)
Uses Performance	The performance mechanisms and targets for this store (indexing, query optimisation, throughput)
Uses Security	The security controls applied to this store (encryption at rest, access control, audit logging)
Uses Deployability	The deployment mechanisms for this store (IaC, environment promotion, schema migration)
Uses Observability	The monitoring, alerting, and logging applied to this store

Relationship	What to link
Has Implementation Acceptance Criteria	Technical criteria for verifying this store is correctly implemented and configured

Relationship	What to link
Has Risk	Risks associated with this store (data loss risk, vendor lock-in, capacity risk, security risk)
Has Assumption	Assumptions made about this store (e.g. assumed hosting environment, assumed access patterns)
Has Issue	Known issues affecting this store
Has FAQ	Frequently asked questions about this store
Has Task	Tasks assigned to this store (e.g. infrastructure provisioning, schema design, security review)

Relationship	What to link
Implements Business Reference	Standards, policies, or regulatory documents governing this store (e.g. data retention policy, GDPR, ISO 27001 controls)