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Selected:Constraint AnalysisGolden PathARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Architecture Decision Record
| Criterion |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Engineering Golden Path |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When teams need a reliable default path for frequent use, sprawl quickly emerges without any guiding logic. Golden Path bundles the preferred path so good practice becomes easy and deviation becomes deliberate. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 15-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-3 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance |