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Criterion
Paper illustration of Request for Comments (RFC) with its method-specific working model.
Architecture
Request for Comments
A/B Testing workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Growth
A/B Testing
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Purposedifferent
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.When two variants compete, discussions quickly decide by taste rather than effect. A/B Testing checks behavior under controlled conditions and separates real improvement from chance or expectation effects.ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighMedium
Timedifferent
1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung1-4 Wochen2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional
Participantsdifferent
3-20 Reviewer1-6Designers, developers as users, and facilitation
Formatdifferent
AsyncAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
RFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or ticketsExperiment results, Decision log, Learning summaryPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance
ExperimentsGrowthAnalyticsValidation
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration for Smoke Test.
Product Discovery
Smoke Test
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping