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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |  Decision Making Trade-off 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. | ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 30-90 min | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 1-6 | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | DecisionTreeOptions | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |