All stakeholders are part of the audience for the design rationale. Stakeholders are the people who are affected by design decisions sooner or later. And there will be a time when stakeholders want to hear explanations why certain design decisions were made, e.g. when:
- the designed system is malfunctioning;
- the designed system must be adapted;
- the designed system must be scaled up or down;
- the designed system or parts of it must be renewed;
- the designed system is more expensive then expected.
Different stakeholders are looking from different viewpoints and will have different views on the design rationale.
