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Criterion
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration for Current Reality Tree
Systems Thinking
Current Reality Tree
Causal Loop Diagram workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Systems Thinking
Causal Loop Diagram
Paper illustration for Behavior Over Time Graph.
Systems Thinking
Behavior Over Time Graph
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.A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once.A Causal Loop Diagram makes feedback, reinforcement, and balance in a system legible. It uncovers side effects and self-reinforcement that stay hidden in linear explanations.A Behavior Over Time Graph shows how a metric or observation develops over time. The method makes trends, breaks, and recurring patterns visible that get lost in snapshots.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighMediumLow
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional2-6 h1-3 h20-45 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation3-82-81-10
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsCurrent Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention IdeasCausal Loop Diagram, Feedback Notes, Leverage PointsBehavior Over Time Graph, Trend Hypotheses, Key Events
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality
FeedbackSystems thinkingCausalityDynamics
Systems thinkingPatternsDynamics
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