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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 TOWS Matrix.
Business Strategy
TOWS Matrix
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.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.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.
Complexitysame
MediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-2 h30-90 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation3-101-6
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsTOWS Matrix, Strategic Options, Priority ActionsDecision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
StrategyAnalysisOptions
DecisionTreeOptions
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Often compared together

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

Paper illustration for Constraint Analysis.
Decision Making
Constraint Analysis
Anonymous individual judgments pass through feedback loops to form a distribution.
Decision Making
Delphi Method
Paper illustration of DIBB with its method-specific working model.
Product Strategy
DIBB
Paper illustration of the Force Field Analysis working structure.
Decision Making
Force Field Analysis