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Criterion
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of Cost of Delay with its method-specific working model.
Delivery
Cost of Delay
Paper fishbone diagram with a measurable effect at the head and six labeled cause branches.
Operations
Fishbone Diagram
Paper illustration for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Operations
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
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.Helps clarify scope, order, and delivery flow in concrete terms. It makes work, constraints, and sequence manageable. The result is captured as a Cost of Delay table and prioritization sequence.When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers.For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability.
Complexitydifferent
HighHighLowHigh
Timedifferent
Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope90-180 min30-60 min2-6 h
Participantsdifferent
Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting3-82-83-10
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop
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 alternativesCoD Table, Prioritization SequenceFishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation BacklogFMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
PrioritizationDeliveryEconomicsDecision
Root causeQualityOperations
RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause
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