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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | 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 an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 30-90 min | 15-45 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 1-6 | 1-3 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | DecisionTreeOptions | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions |