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| Criterion |  Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |  UX Research Surveys |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Growth A/B Testing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 a topic needs to be validated broadly and many people can answer the same question, surveys gather structured feedback in a scalable form. Answers become comparable and segmentable instead of remaining merely anecdotal. | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | When two variants compete, discussions quickly decide by taste rather than effect. A/B Testing checks behavior under controlled conditions and separates real improvement from chance or expectation effects. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low | High |
Timedifferent | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 3-14 Tage | 1-5 Tage | 1-4 Wochen |
Participantsdifferent | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | 50+ | Nutzertraffic | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Async | 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 | Survey Results, Charts, Segment Insights | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Experiment results, Decision log, Learning summary |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | QuantitativeResearchValidation | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ExperimentsGrowthAnalyticsValidation |