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| Criterion |  Business Strategy GAP Analysis |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Business Strategy TOWS Matrix |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | GAP Analysis compares the current state with a target picture and makes the distance manageable. It becomes useful when, ahead of new initiatives, it must become clear which capabilities, processes, or resources are missing. | 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 TOWS Matrix connects internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats into action-oriented strategies. It goes a step further than a pure stocktaking. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-2 h | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Gap Matrix, Action Plan, Risk Notes | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | TOWS Matrix, Strategic Options, Priority Actions | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries |
Tagsno overlap | StrategyAnalysisPlanning | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | StrategyAnalysisOptions | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions |