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| Criterion |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Architecture Software Architecture Canvas |
|---|---|---|---|
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. | The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality Attributes |
Tagsno overlap | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop |
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