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Criterion
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
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.LASR helps development teams identify where their software falls short of important quality goals and which improvements to consider. A small group with existing system knowledge can make an initial assessment and investigate open questions in more detail.When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic.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
LowMediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
20–45 min3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional45-90 min45-120 min
Participantsdifferent
Small cross-functional group1 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 people2-82-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logLean Mission Statement describing the software’s purpose, Prioritized quality goals and evaluation criteria, Risks and estimated gaps against quality goals, More closely examined findings and open checksDecision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected OptionTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides
Tagsno overlap
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean
DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
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