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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Decision Making Argument Mapping |  Decision Making Decision Rights Mapping |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 1-3 h | 90-180 min | 15-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 1-8 | 4-12 | 1-3 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Async |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Argument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale | Decision Rights Matrix, Agreement | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | SensemakingDecisionRationale | DecisionGovernanceAlignmentResponsibility | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance |