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| Criterion |  Architecture arc42 |  Innovation Design Thinking |  Product Discovery Outcome-Driven Innovation |  Architecture C4 Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | Outcome-Driven Innovation clarifies customer problems, solution opportunities, and evidence. It separates jobs, desired outcomes, importance, satisfaction, and opportunity, and captures results as desired outcome statements, an opportunity landscape, and segments by underserved needs. | The C4 Model makes a system legible across several resolution levels, from context down to code. It suits situations where different audiences need to understand the same architecture from different altitudes. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-2 Tage | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | Mehrere Wochen | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-4 | 4-10 | 2-6 researchers plus sample | 1-5 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Desired outcome statements, Opportunity landscape, Segmentation by underserved needs, Innovation hypotheses | Context Diagram, Container Diagram, Component Diagram |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | InnovationPrototypeResearch | OutcomesInnovationResearchQuantitative | ArchitectureCommunicationVisualization |