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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Engineering Failure Scenario Analysis |  Architecture arc42 |  Architecture C4 Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | In critical processes, it is not enough to plan only for the normal case. Failure Scenario Analysis looks at the path into failure and shows which failures, chains, and control gaps cause the most damage. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | The C4 Model makes a system legible across several resolution levels, from context down to code. It suits situations where different audiences need to understand the same architecture from different altitudes. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 1-3 h | 1-2 Tage | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 3-8 | 1-4 | 1-5 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Failure Scenarios, Risk Notes, Control Gaps, Test and Response Actions | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Context Diagram, Container Diagram, Component Diagram |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | FailureResilienceRisk | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | ArchitectureCommunicationVisualization |