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| Criterion |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Architecture C4 Model |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 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. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-4 h | 45-120 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-5 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Context Diagram, Container Diagram, Component Diagram | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureCommunicationVisualization | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs |