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Selected:ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)Pre-MortemARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
| Criterion | ![]() Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) | ![]() Decision Making Pre-Mortem | ![]() Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) | ![]() Architecture LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | 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. | LASR helps development teams identify where their software falls short of important quality goals and which improvements to consider. A small group with existing system knowledge can make an initial assessment and investigate open questions in more detail. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 20–45 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional |
Participantsdifferent | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | Small cross-functional group | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 people |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | 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 | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Lean Mission Statement describing the software’s purpose, Prioritized quality goals and evaluation criteria, Risks and estimated gaps against quality goals, More closely examined findings and open checks |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean |



