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Selected:Opportunity ScoringSAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)Root Cause AnalysisPareto Analysis
| Criterion |  Product Discovery Opportunity Scoring |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Decision Making Pareto Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When opportunities need ranking by their effect, it makes importance and satisfaction directly comparable. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as an opportunity-score table and top outcomes. | 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 a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | In many problem situations, effect is distributed unequally across many causes. A Pareto Analysis separates the few drivers with high leverage from the long remainder and focuses attention on what measurably moves the needle. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 60-120 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 1-4 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-6 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 3-8 | 1-6 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Opportunity Score Table, Top Outcomes | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Pareto Chart, Top Causes, Focus List |
Tagsno overlap | PrioritizationDiscoveryOutcomesNeeds | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | PrioritizationQualityFocusRoot cause |