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Selected:Architecture Decision RecordDesign ThinkingARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Golden Path
| Criterion |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Innovation Design Thinking |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Engineering Golden Path |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For complex user problems with an uncertain cause, the method connects observation, interpretation, and experiment into a learning cycle. It keeps the focus on real needs and avoids premature solution language. This produces robust decisions for product and service. | 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. | When teams need a reliable default path for frequent use, sprawl quickly emerges without any guiding logic. Golden Path bundles the preferred path so good practice becomes easy and deviation becomes deliberate. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend |
Participantsdifferent | 1-3 | 4-10 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | InnovationPrototypeResearch | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | EngineeringProductivityGovernance |