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| Criterion |  Architecture Request for Comments |  Decision Making Argument Mapping |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Decision Making Cynefin Workshop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on. | 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. | When problems are unclear, chaotic, or only seemingly familiar, standard recipes fall short. A Cynefin Workshop sorts situations by the nature of their problem and connects them with matching action logic. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung | 1-3 h | 45-120 min | 60-180 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-20 Reviewer | 1-8 | 2-8 | 4-20 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | RFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or tickets | Argument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Cynefin Map, Domain-specific Actions, Sensemaking Notes |
Tags1 shared | ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance | SensemakingDecisionRationale | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | ComplexitySensemakingDecision |