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Selected:ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Decision Framing WorkshopSAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)Architecture Inception Canvas
| Criterion |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Decision Making Decision Framing Workshop |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Architecture Architecture Inception Canvas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When a decision is poorly framed, even good answers deliver little value. A Decision Framing Workshop sharpens the problem, goal, and boundaries before the actual weighing begins. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. | The Architecture Inception Canvas bundles the first architecture questions into a compact decision picture. It fits when an initiative is still in motion but still needs clear guardrails. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 60-120 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 4-10 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Decision Frame, Decision Question, Criteria List, Evidence Plan | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives | Inception Canvas, Risks, Goal List, Open Questions |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | Decision framingAlignmentCriteriaOptions | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | AlignmentArchitectureCanvas |