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| Criterion |  Delivery Cost of Delay |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Decision Making Risk Matrix |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Helps clarify scope, order, and delivery flow in concrete terms. It makes work, constraints, and sequence manageable. The result is captured as a Cost of Delay table and prioritization sequence. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. | When a project faces many possible disruptions, it quickly becomes unclear which risks deserve attention first. It separates options, evaluation criteria, and open risks. The result is captured as a Risk Matrix and a Top Risk List. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. |
Complexitydifferent | High | High | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 90-180 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 30-60 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | CoD Table, Prioritization Sequence | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives | Risk Matrix, Top Risk List | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan |
Tagsno overlap | PrioritizationDeliveryEconomicsDecision | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | RiskDecisionPrioritizationAssessment | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery |