Architecture Document Management is the systematic approach to creating, organizing, storing, controlling, and maintaining architecture documentation throughout its lifecycle, ensuring that architectural information is accessible, accurate, consistent, and appropriately governed to support stakeholder needs and organizational objectives.

For enterprise architects, effective document management goes beyond basic file storage to encompass the entire lifecycle of architectural information. Comprehensive implementations address multiple dimensions: content standardization through templates and style guides ensuring consistent structure and terminology; metadata frameworks enabling contextual discovery across business domains and architecture layers; version control mechanisms maintaining historical records while ensuring users access current information; access control models balancing information sharing with security requirements; and review/approval workflows ensuring quality and alignment with enterprise standards. Organizations typically implement specialized architecture repositories rather than generic document management systems, providing capabilities for relationship modeling, impact analysis, and traceability between interconnected architectural elements. Technical leaders must establish clear documentation standards determining which artifacts require formal management versus more fluid working documents, with governance effort proportional to architectural significance. Document management strategies should recognize diverse stakeholder needs, supporting different views and abstraction levels from executive summaries to detailed technical specifications. Modern approaches increasingly incorporate interactive and automated elements—including visualization tools, collaboration features, and automated document generation—reducing manual maintenance effort while improving information currency. As organizations adopt more agile delivery methods, documentation approaches must evolve from comprehensive up-front documentation toward lighter, evolutionary documentation that emerges alongside implementation, maintaining sufficient architectural guidance without creating unnecessary bureaucracy that impedes delivery velocity.