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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 with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Fault Isolation.
Engineering
Fault Isolation
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.SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning.In technical failures, the visible symptom often gets mixed up with the actual cause. Fault Isolation narrows the fault space and progressively reduces which part of the system is truly affected.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighMedium
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additionalPreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope30-180 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitationArchitecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting1-6
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsDomain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternativesFault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering
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Often compared together

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

Paper illustration for Change Analysis.
Operations
Change Analysis
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting.
Engineering
Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting
Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)