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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)
Paper illustration for Argument Mapping
Decision Making
Argument Mapping
Architecture Communication Canvas method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Architecture Communication Canvas
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.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.The Architecture Communication Canvas plans architecture communication so the right people receive the right message. The method turns technical complexity into deliberate communication design.
Complexitydifferent
HighMediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-3 h60-120 min
Participantsdifferent
Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholdersDesigners, developers as users, and facilitation1-82-8
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 revisionsArgument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision RationaleCommunication Canvas, Stakeholder Messages, Architecture Communication Plan
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
SensemakingDecisionRationale
ArchitectureCommunicationStakeholdersCanvas
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