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| Criterion |  Facilitation Consensus Workshop |  Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |  Facilitation Dot Voting |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a group needs a solid decision without outvoting individual factions, a Consensus Workshop creates a negotiable common ground. It makes agreement, reservations, and open tensions discussable at the same time. | 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 workshop has produced too many options and the group needs to condense quickly, dot voting makes preferences visible in a short time. It bundles individual votes into a solid signal for the next selection. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 5-15 min | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | 5-30 | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | 3-20 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Consensus Clusters, Theme Titles, Priority Areas | Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations | Ranked list, Consensus signal, Shortlist | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions |
Tagsno overlap | FacilitationConsensusWorkshopAlignment | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | FacilitationVotingConsensusPrioritization | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation |