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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 a four-quadrant grid with tasks sorted by importance and urgency and translated into actions.
Decision Making
Eisenhower Matrix
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
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.It separates true priorities from noise so it becomes clear what should be done now, scheduled, delegated, or dropped.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.ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation.
Complexitydifferent
HighLowMediumHigh
Timedifferent
Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope15-30 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additionalSeveral meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope
Participantsdifferent
Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting1-6Designers, developers as users, and facilitationEvaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + 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 alternativesEisenhower Matrix, Action List, Delegation NotesPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsPrioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
PrioritizationFocusTasks
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders
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