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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Facilitation Power Interest Grid |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. | When many stakeholders compete for attention at once, the Power Interest Grid sorts them by influence and stake. It turns individual contributions into a visible selection. The result is captured as a Power Interest Grid and a stakeholder-specific strategy. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 30-60 min | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-8 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives | Power Interest Grid, Strategy per Stakeholder | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | StakeholdersFacilitationAlignmentPlanning | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation |