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Criterion
Paper illustration of Porter’s five competitive forces
Business Strategy
Porter Five Forces
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of a SWOT matrix with four separated quadrants and marked strategic options.
Business Strategy
SWOT Analysis
Purposedifferent
Porter Five Forces analyzes the forces that shape competitive pressure and profitability in a market. The view of market structure goes beyond individual competitors and reveals systemic pressure points.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.ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation.SWOT Analysis arranges strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats into a compact picture of the situation. It keeps internal capabilities and external influences separate before strategic options emerge from them.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighHighLow
Timedifferent
1-3 hPreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scopeSeveral meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope30-60 min
Participantsdifferent
2-8Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weightingEvaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders3-12
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Five Forces Analysis, Competitive Risks, Strategic OptionsDomain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternativesPrioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigationsSWOT matrix, Strategic options, Action list
Tagsno overlap
StrategyCompetitionMarket
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
StrategyAnalysisMarketPositioning
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