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| Criterion | ![]() Engineering Fault Isolation | ![]() Architecture Software Architecture Canvas | ![]() Product Discovery Assumption Mapping | ![]() Architecture Architecture Inception Canvas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | In technical failures, the visible symptom often gets mixed up with the actual cause. Fault Isolation narrows the fault space and progressively reduces which part of the system is truly affected. | 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. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. | The Architecture Inception Canvas bundles the first architecture questions into a compact decision picture. It fits when an initiative is still in motion but still needs clear guardrails. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 1-2 h | 45-60 min | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 3-10 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality Attributes | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking | Inception Canvas, Risks, Goal List, Open Questions |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation | AlignmentArchitectureCanvas |



