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| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Innovation Lean Startup |  Architecture arc42 |  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. | For uncertain business assumptions, the method forces the idea into contact with real market reactions early. It separates wishful picture, assumption, and observable behavior, so that learning becomes faster than planning. This translates uncertainty into measurable insight. | 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. | 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 | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | Wochen bis Monate je Lernzyklus | 1-2 Tage | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 1-4 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Hypothesis list, MVPs, Learning reports, Pivot or persevere decision | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | LeanStartupValidationMVP | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |