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Criterion
Paper illustration of a journey map with four connected phases, several experience lanes and a point marked for closer investigation.
UX Research
Customer Journey Mapping
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Alignment Mapping.
Facilitation
Alignment Mapping
Paper illustration for 3-Circle Venn Diagram
Facilitation
3-Circle Venn Diagram
Purposedifferent
When a user journey falls apart across many touchpoints, customer journey mapping makes the experience visible as a coherent arc. Phases, emotions, and breaks become legible enough to prioritize critical moments deliberately.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.When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable.When three perspectives matter at the same time, a Three-Circle Venn Diagram shows the overlaps and remainders precisely. It makes visible where shared effect arises and where only a partial perspective applies.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighMediumLow
Timedifferent
2-4 hPreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope1-2 h15-45 min
Participantsdifferent
4-10Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting4-122-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Journey Map, Pain-point List, Opportunity BacklogDomain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternativesAlignment Map, Open Issues, Decision QuestionsVenn Diagram, Overlap Notes, Differentiators
Tagsno overlap
JourneyServiceService design
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation
ComparisonFacilitationAlignment
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