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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 RAID Log with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Delivery
RAID Log
Paper illustration of an assumption matrix with prioritized test cards
Decision Making
Assumption Surfacing
Paper illustration of Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
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.Helps clarify scope, sequence, and delivery flow in concrete terms. It makes work, boundaries, and order steerable. The result is captured as a RAID Log and a source for status reporting.Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it.An RFC clarifies architecture context, options, and consequences. It structures technical context, alternatives, tradeoffs, open questions, and review feedback, and captures the result as an RFC document, reviewer comments, and a decision rationale.
Complexitydifferent
HighLowLowMedium
Timedifferent
Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope30 min Setup, dann laufend45-90 min1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung
Participantsdifferent
Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders1-3 maintaining, briefing for everyone2-83-20 Reviewer
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncAsyncWorkshop + asyncAsync
Outputdifferent
Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigationsRAID Log, Status Report SourceAssumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning PlanRFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or tickets
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
RiskTrackingStakeholdersGovernance
AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery
ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance
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