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Selected:ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Root Cause AnalysisAffinity DiagrammingRoot Cause Tree Analysis
| Criterion |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  UX Research Affinity Diagramming |  Operations Root Cause Tree 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 a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | When research notes, feedback, or observations sit unconnected side by side, affinity diagramming sorts the raw material into solid themes. Many individual points turn into patterns that make decisions and opportunities clearer. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-4 h | 45–90 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 3-8 | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Theme clusters, Insight statements, Opportunity areas | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | SynthesisQualitativeRoot cause | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality |