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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 of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Decision Tree method illustration showing its working structure
Decision Making
Decision Tree
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
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 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.For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch.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.
Complexitysame
MediumMediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-90 min30-90 min45-120 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation2-81-62-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsDecision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected OptionDecision Tree, Option Map, Assumption ListTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs
DecisionTreeOptions
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
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