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Criterion
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
A paper-based illustration representing arc42 with its core stages and visible working result.
Architecture
arc42
Views and Beyond method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Views and Beyond
Purposedifferent
ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation.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.arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes.Views and Beyond organizes architecture into several views so no single diagram has to do everything at once. This makes it possible to choose the representation that fits the stakeholder's question.
Complexitydifferent
HighMediumLowMedium
Timedifferent
Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-2 Tage1-3 Tage
Participantsdifferent
Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholdersDesigners, developers as users, and facilitation1-41-4
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigationsPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsArchitecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment ViewArchitecture Views, Cross-view Notes, Rationale
Tags1 shared
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication
DocumentationStakeholdersArchitecture
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