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| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Architecture arc42 |  Architecture Request for Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | 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. | 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 | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 45-90 min | 1-2 Tage | 1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 1-4 | 3-20 Reviewer |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | RFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or tickets |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance |