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Criterion
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Purposedifferent
In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures.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 several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic.
Complexitydifferent
LowLowMedium
Timedifferent
20–45 min15-45 min45-90 min
Participantsdifferent
Small cross-functional group1-32-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logADR File, Decision Log, RationaleDecision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option
Tagsno overlap
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs
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Often compared together

Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis