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Criterion
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Software Architecture Canvas method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Software Architecture Canvas
Paper illustration of Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
Paper illustration for DACI
Decision Making
DACI
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.The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly.An RFC clarifies architecture context, options, and consequences. It structures technical context, alternatives, tradeoffs, open questions, and review feedback, and captures the result as an RFC document, reviewer comments, and a decision rationale.In cross-functional decisions, responsibilities quickly blur between approval, influence, and execution. DACI arranges these roles so decision pressure, contribution, and information stay cleanly separated.
Complexitydifferent
LowLowMediumLow
Timedifferent
20–45 min1-2 h1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung30-60 min
Participantsdifferent
Small cross-functional group3-103-20 Reviewer2-10
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshopAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logArchitecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality AttributesRFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or ticketsDACI Matrix, Decision Owner, Decision Log
Tagsno overlap
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop
ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance
DecisionRolesGovernanceAlignment
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