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Criterion
Paper illustration of the Lightning Decision Jam working structure.
Facilitation
Decision Jam
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Purposedifferent
When a decision is stuck, Decision Jam loosens the knot through structured separation of problem, idea, and selection. The format creates movement without jumping prematurely at the first seemingly elegant answer.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.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.
Complexitydifferent
LowLowMedium
Timedifferent
60-90 min15-45 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional
Participantsdifferent
4-101-3Designers, developers as users, and facilitation
Formatdifferent
WorkshopAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Problem Cluster, Prioritized Challenge, ExperimentADR File, Decision Log, RationalePrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions
Tagsno overlap
FacilitationDecisionProblem solvingWorkshop
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration of Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
Paper illustration for Risk Storming.
Architecture
Risk Storming
Paper illustration for Argument Mapping
Decision Making
Argument Mapping