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Criterion
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration for ALPEN Method
Operations
ALPEN Method
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.ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification.With an overloaded day full of too many tasks, a realistic picture of the day emerges. The method connects estimating, deciding, and buffer thinking so planning fits available energy and time.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumLow
Timedifferent
20–45 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional10-20 min daily
Participantsdifferent
Small cross-functional groupDesigners, developers as users, and facilitation1
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncAsync
Outputdifferent
Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsDaily Plan, Time Estimates, Review Notes
Tagsno overlap
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
PlanningTime managementProductivityOperations
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Paper notes move from an inbox to action, project and calendar collections.
Operations
Getting Things Done
Paper illustration for Risk Storming.
Architecture
Risk Storming
Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping
Paper illustration of an assumption matrix with prioritized test cards
Decision Making
Assumption Surfacing