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| Criterion |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Product Strategy ICE Scoring |  Decision Making Trade-off 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. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | When ideas need sorting quickly, it condenses impact, confidence, and effort into one compact score. It connects customer value, product logic, and decision priorities. The result is captured as an ICE table and top-ideas list. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 45-120 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 | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | ICE Table, Top Idea List | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | PrioritizationScoringGrowthDecision | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |