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| Criterion |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Product Strategy ICE Scoring |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | High | Low |
Timedifferent | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 30-60 min | 2-8 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
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 | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | PrioritizationScoringGrowthDecision | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | Root causeQualityOperations |