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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 Option Framing.
Decision Making
Option Framing
Paper illustration for TOWS Matrix.
Business Strategy
TOWS 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.In early decisions, alternatives are often still vague, incomplete, or blended together. Option Framing brings every possibility into a comparable form and makes visible which variant actually fits the question.The TOWS Matrix connects internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats into action-oriented strategies. It goes a step further than a pure stocktaking.
Complexitysame
MediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-120 min1-2 h
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation3-83-10
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsOption Frames, Assumption Notes, Comparable Shortlist, Decision InputsTOWS Matrix, Strategic Options, Priority Actions
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
OptionsDecision framingStrategyComparison
StrategyAnalysisOptions
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Often compared together

Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Decision Framing Workshop.
Decision Making
Decision Framing Workshop
Gap Analysis method illustration showing its working structure
Business Strategy
GAP Analysis
Paper illustration of MVP Test Matrix with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Product Discovery
MVP Test Matrix