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Selected:SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)Assumption SurfacingTrade-off AnalysisAssumption Mapping
| Criterion |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | 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. | 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 assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 45-90 min | 45-120 min | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | 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 | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |