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| Criterion |  Architecture arc42 |  Architecture Software Architecture Canvas |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |
|---|---|---|---|
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. | The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-2 Tage | 1-2 h | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | 1-4 | 3-10 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality Attributes | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tags1 shared | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |
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