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Criterion
Paper illustration of two user profile cards with a goal, behavior evidence, and an open research question.
UX Research
Personas
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Root Cause Analysis.
Operations
Root Cause Analysis
Paper illustration for Change Analysis.
Operations
Change Analysis
Purposedifferent
When target groups stay too vague and teams talk about the same people differently, personas create a shared, solid picture of usage. Condensed profiles make needs, contexts, and differences tangible enough for decisions.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.For a deviation after a change, the method isolates the influence of the altered condition. It narrows down which differences are relevant and which are just accompanying noise.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighMediumMedium
Timedifferent
1-3 TagePreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope1-4 h45-120 min
Participantsdifferent
Internes TeamArchitecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting3-82-6
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Persona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario NotesDomain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternativesProblem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action PlanChange Matrix, Cause Hypotheses, Validation Questions, Action List
Tagsno overlap
ResearchCustomerSynthesis
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident
ChangeRoot causeTroubleshootingComparison
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