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Selected:Constraint AnalysisARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Architecture Decision RecordArgument Mapping
| Criterion |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Decision Making Argument Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification. | 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 statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 15-45 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-3 | 1-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Argument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | SensemakingDecisionRationale |