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Criterion
Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
Paper illustration showing three sorted card stacks and an open question about a possible group.
UX Research
Card Sorting
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Operations
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Purposedifferent
LASR helps development teams identify where their software falls short of important quality goals and which improvements to consider. A small group with existing system knowledge can make an initial assessment and investigate open questions in more detail.When content only makes sense internally and users can't find the structure again, card sorting exposes their mental order. Terms, groups, and naming are then aligned with the target group's expectations.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.For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability.
Complexitydifferent
MediumLowMediumHigh
Timedifferent
3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional20-45 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional2-6 h
Participantsdifferent
1 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 peopleBased on research questionDesigners, developers as users, and facilitation3-10
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Lean Mission Statement describing the software’s purpose, Prioritized quality goals and evaluation criteria, Risks and estimated gaps against quality goals, More closely examined findings and open checksContent groups, Label set, IA hypothesesPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsFMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean
Information architectureNavigationStructure
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause
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