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| Criterion |  Architecture arc42 |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Architecture Views and Beyond |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | Views and Beyond organizes architecture into several views so no single diagram has to do everything at once. This makes it possible to choose the representation that fits the stakeholder's question. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-2 Tage | 45-90 min | 1-3 Tage | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-4 | 2-8 | 1-4 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Architecture Views, Cross-view Notes, Rationale | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | DocumentationStakeholdersArchitecture | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |