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Criterion
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Pareto Analysis
Decision Making
Pareto Analysis
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
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.In many problem situations, effect is distributed unequally across many causes. A Pareto Analysis separates the few drivers with high leverage from the long remainder and focuses attention on what measurably moves the needle.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.
Complexitydifferent
HighLowMedium
Timedifferent
Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope30-60 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional
Participantsdifferent
Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting1-6Designers, developers as users, and facilitation
Formatsame
Workshop + 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 alternativesPareto Chart, Top Causes, Focus ListPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
PrioritizationQualityFocusRoot cause
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration for Change Analysis.
Operations
Change Analysis
Paper illustration of a four-quadrant grid with tasks sorted by importance and urgency and translated into actions.
Decision Making
Eisenhower Matrix
Paper illustration for 8D Problem Solving.
Operations
8D Problem Solving
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)