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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 Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
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.An RFC clarifies architecture context, options, and consequences. It structures technical context, alternatives, tradeoffs, open questions, and review feedback, and captures the result as an RFC document, reviewer comments, and a decision rationale.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
MediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung45-120 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation3-20 Reviewer2-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsRFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or ticketsTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Constraint Analysis.
Decision Making
Constraint Analysis