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Criterion
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of two user profile cards with a goal, behavior evidence, and an open research question.
UX Research
Personas
Paper illustration of two people facing each other, speech bubbles and an open interview notebook.
UX Research
User Interviews
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.When target groups stay too vague and teams talk about the same people differently, personas create a shared, solid picture of usage. Condensed profiles make needs, contexts, and differences tangible enough for decisions.When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible.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
HighMediumLowMedium
Timedifferent
Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope1-3 Tage30–60 min per interview60-120 min
Participantsdifferent
Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholdersInternes Team1 participant per interview2-8
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 investigationsPersona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario NotesInterview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryCommunication Canvas, Stakeholder Messages, Architecture Communication Plan
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
ResearchCustomerSynthesis
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
ArchitectureCommunicationStakeholdersCanvas
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