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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 matrix with six colored hat cards for information, feeling, value, caution, ideas and process control.
Facilitation
Six Thinking Hats
Paper illustration for ALPEN Method
Operations
ALPEN Method
Decision Tree method illustration showing its working structure
Decision Making
Decision Tree
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 topic gets stuck too quickly in the same thinking mode, Six Thinking Hats deliberately separates the perspectives. This means facts, risks, creativity, and emotional signals get worked through one after another instead of mixed together.With an overloaded day full of too many tasks, a realistic picture of the day emerges. The method connects estimating, deciding, and buffer thinking so planning fits available energy and time.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.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumLowMedium
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-90 min10-20 min daily30-90 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation4-1211-6
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsPerspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action ItemsDaily Plan, Time Estimates, Review NotesDecision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
FacilitationOptionsDecision
PlanningTime managementProductivityOperations
DecisionTreeOptions
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