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Selected:ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)Fault IsolationRiskiest Assumption TestARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
| Criterion |  Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Product Discovery Riskiest Assumption Test |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | In technical failures, the visible symptom often gets mixed up with the actual cause. Fault Isolation narrows the fault space and progressively reduces which part of the system is truly affected. | When an idea hinges on one critical unknown, it prioritizes testing that exact piece of uncertainty first. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as a prioritized list of assumptions, a test plan, and a result report. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 30-180 min | 1-2 Wochen pro Iteration | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | 1-6 | 2-6 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Prioritized Assumption List, Test Plan, Results Report | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryAssumptions | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |