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Selected:Fishbone DiagramARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Failure Mode and Effects AnalysisATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
| Criterion | ![]() Operations Fishbone Diagram | ![]() Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) | ![]() Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis | ![]() Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | 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 a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | High | High |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 2-6 h | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 3-10 | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeQualityOperations | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders |



