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Criterion
Anonymous individual judgments pass through feedback loops to form a distribution.
Decision Making
Delphi Method
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
Purposedifferent
When knowledge is distributed and direct dominance should be avoided, groups quickly fall under the sway of their opinion leaders. The Delphi Method gathers assessments iteratively and gradually brings expert judgments closer together.ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation.An RFC clarifies architecture context, options, and consequences. It structures technical context, alternatives, tradeoffs, open questions, and review feedback, and captures the result as an RFC document, reviewer comments, and a decision rationale.
Complexitydifferent
HighHighMedium
Timedifferent
1-4 WochenSeveral meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung
Participantsdifferent
6-30 ExpertenEvaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders3-20 Reviewer
Formatdifferent
AsyncWorkshop + asyncAsync
Outputdifferent
Expert Forecast, Consensus Range, Assumption NotesPrioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigationsRFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or tickets
Tagsno overlap
ForecastingExpertsDecisionStrategy
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
Paper illustration for Alignment Mapping.
Facilitation
Alignment Mapping
Architecture Communication Canvas method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Architecture Communication Canvas