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Criterion
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Software Architecture Canvas method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Software Architecture Canvas
Paper illustration of Power-Interest Grid with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Facilitation
Power Interest Grid
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.The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly.When many stakeholders compete for attention at once, the Power Interest Grid sorts them by influence and stake. It turns individual contributions into a visible selection. The result is captured as a Power Interest Grid and a stakeholder-specific strategy.
Complexitydifferent
HighLowLowLow
Timedifferent
Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope20–45 min1-2 h30-60 min
Participantsdifferent
Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholdersSmall cross-functional group3-102-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigationsRisk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logArchitecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality AttributesPower Interest Grid, Strategy per Stakeholder
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop
StakeholdersFacilitationAlignmentPlanning
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