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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Architecture Software Architecture Canvas |  Decision Making Decision Rights Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly. | In organizations with many stakeholders, it often blurs who actually decides and who is merely consulted. It separates options, evaluation criteria, and open risks. The result is captured as a Decision Rights matrix and an agreement. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 15-45 min | 1-2 h | 90-180 min |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 1-3 | 3-10 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality Attributes | Decision Rights Matrix, Agreement |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop | DecisionGovernanceAlignmentResponsibility |