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Selected:SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)ICE ScoringARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Change Analysis
| Criterion |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Product Strategy ICE Scoring |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Operations Change 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 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. | 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. | For a deviation after a change, the method isolates the influence of the altered condition. It narrows down which differences are relevant and which are just accompanying noise. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 30-60 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 2-6 |
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 | ICE Table, Top Idea List | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Change Matrix, Cause Hypotheses, Validation Questions, Action List |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | PrioritizationScoringGrowthDecision | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ChangeRoot causeTroubleshootingComparison |