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Selected:Impact MappingARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Architecture Decision Recordarc42
| Criterion | ![]() Product Strategy Impact Mapping | ![]() Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) | ![]() Architecture Architecture Decision Record | ![]() Architecture arc42 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a goal needs to be connected to several possible paths, it shows chains of impact instead of feature lists. It connects business goal, behavior change, and measures. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 15-45 min | 1-2 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-3 | 1-4 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Impact Map, Outcome Hypotheses, Delivery Options | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View |
Tagsno overlap | OutcomesStrategyBehaviorPlanning | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication |



