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| Criterion |  Agile Bucket System |  Agile Story Splitting |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Agile Affinity Estimation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a large batch of work needs a fast, rough estimate, it sorts items into predefined size buckets. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as a Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, and Split Candidates. | When a story becomes too large for a clean flow, it breaks scope down along value and risk. It shapes the work into a form that ships earlier and is easier to verify. | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 30-60 min | 15-45 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 2-6 | 1-3 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, Split Candidates | Smaller Stories, Acceptance Criteria, Split Rationale | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items |
Tagsno overlap | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | BacklogIterationDelivery | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing |