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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Decision Making Risk Matrix |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When a project faces many possible disruptions, it quickly becomes unclear which risks deserve attention first. It separates options, evaluation criteria, and open risks. The result is captured as a Risk Matrix and a Top Risk List. | 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. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 30-60 min | 15-45 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 3-10 | 1-3 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Risk Matrix, Top Risk List | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | RiskDecisionPrioritizationAssessment | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery |