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Criterion
Paper illustration of a MoSCoW board with four columns and a visible release boundary.
Delivery
MoSCoW
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Paper illustration for Argument Mapping
Decision Making
Argument Mapping
Purposedifferent
When a release carries too many demands and priorities are only ever negotiated, MoSCoW creates clear boundaries for the next cut. Must, Should, Could, and Won't make commitment, room for maneuver, and trade-off logic visible to everyone involved.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.When statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumLowMedium
Timedifferent
30-90 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional15-45 min1-3 h
Participantsdifferent
3-12Designers, developers as users, and facilitation1-31-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized Backlog, Release Scope, Tradeoff NotesPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsADR File, Decision Log, RationaleArgument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale
Tagsno overlap
PrioritizationScopeDecision
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
SensemakingDecisionRationale
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