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Selected:ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Decision Tree arc42 Architecture Decision Record

Criterion	Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)	Decision Making Decision Tree	Architecture arc42	Architecture Architecture Decision Record
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.	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.	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.	An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable.
Complexitydifferent	Medium	Medium	Low	Low
Timedifferent	2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional	30-90 min	1-2 Tage	15-45 min
Participantsdifferent	Designers, developers as users, and facilitation	1-6	1-4	1-3
Formatdifferent	Workshop + async	Workshop + async	Workshop + async	Async
Outputdifferent	Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions	Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List	Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View	ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale
Tagsno overlap	ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks	DecisionTreeOptions	ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication	ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance

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