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Selected:Golden PathSoftware Architecture CanvasArchitecture Decision RecordARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Architecture Software Architecture Canvas |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  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. | The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly. | 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. | 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 | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 1-2 h | 15-45 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-10 | 1-3 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality Attributes | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |