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Selected:Golden PathSAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Architecture Decision Record
| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. | 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. | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 15-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-3 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance |