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| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Architecture arc42 |  Product Discovery Riskiest Assumption Test |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When teams need a reliable default path for frequent use, sprawl quickly emerges without any guiding logic. Golden Path bundles the preferred path so good practice becomes easy and deviation becomes deliberate. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | When an idea hinges on one critical unknown, it prioritizes testing that exact piece of uncertainty first. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as a prioritized list of assumptions, a test plan, and a result report. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 1-2 Tage | 1-2 Wochen pro Iteration | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-4 | 2-6 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Prioritized Assumption List, Test Plan, Results Report | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryAssumptions | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |