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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 Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
Paper illustration for Argument Mapping
Decision Making
Argument Mapping
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
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.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.When statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on.An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-120 min1-3 h15-45 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation2-81-81-3
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncAsync
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted DownsidesArgument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision RationaleADR File, Decision Log, Rationale
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
SensemakingDecisionRationale
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
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