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| Criterion |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Decision Making Decision Tree |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | 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. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-6 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List |
Tagsno overlap | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | DecisionTreeOptions |
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