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| Criterion |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Operations Fault Tree Analysis |  Operations Root Cause 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. | For a critical top event with several possible triggers, the method logically models failure paths. It makes visible which combinations of conditions can lead to damage. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. |
Complexitydifferent | High | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 2-6 h | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 3-8 | 3-8 |
Formatsame | 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 | Fault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control Actions | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | RiskRoot causeSafety | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
