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| Criterion |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Growth A/B Testing |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Architecture arc42 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | When two variants compete, discussions quickly decide by taste rather than effect. A/B Testing checks behavior under controlled conditions and separates real improvement from chance or expectation effects. | ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 1-4 Wochen | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-2 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 1-3 | 1-6 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-4 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Experiment results, Decision log, Learning summary | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ExperimentsGrowthAnalyticsValidation | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication |