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Criterion
Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
Paper illustration for Decision Framing Workshop.
Decision Making
Decision Framing Workshop
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.With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects.When a decision is poorly framed, even good answers deliver little value. A Decision Framing Workshop sharpens the problem, goal, and boundaries before the actual weighing begins.
Complexitysame
MediumMediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
45-90 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-120 min60-120 min
Participantsdifferent
2-8Designers, developers as users, and facilitation2-84-10
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected OptionPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted DownsidesDecision Frame, Decision Question, Criteria List, Evidence Plan
Tagsno overlap
DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
Decision framingAlignmentCriteriaOptions
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