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Criterion
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration of a Test Card with four fields for hypothesis, test, metric, and success threshold.
Product Discovery
Test Card
Paper illustration of a Learning Card with four fields for hypothesis, observation, insight, and action.
Product Discovery
Learning Card
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.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.The Test Card turns a critical assumption into a testable claim and specifies in advance which result counts as success.The Learning Card connects traceable test results to a reasoned next action while keeping the limits of the insight visible.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumLowLow
Timedifferent
15-45 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional20-35 min25-40 min
Participantsdifferent
1-3Designers, developers as users, and facilitation1-51-5
Formatdifferent
AsyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
ADR File, Decision Log, RationalePrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsTest Card with a pre-set thresholdLearning Card with evidence and next action
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryHypothesis
ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryLearning
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