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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 RAID Log with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Delivery
RAID Log
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Views and Beyond method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Views and Beyond
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.Helps clarify scope, sequence, and delivery flow in concrete terms. It makes work, boundaries, and order steerable. The result is captured as a RAID Log and a source for status reporting.An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable.Views and Beyond organizes architecture into several views so no single diagram has to do everything at once. This makes it possible to choose the representation that fits the stakeholder's question.
Complexitydifferent
HighLowLowMedium
Timedifferent
Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope30 min Setup, dann laufend15-45 min1-3 Tage
Participantsdifferent
Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting1-3 maintaining, briefing for everyone1-31-4
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncAsyncAsyncWorkshop + 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 alternativesRAID Log, Status Report SourceADR File, Decision Log, RationaleArchitecture Views, Cross-view Notes, Rationale
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
RiskTrackingStakeholdersGovernance
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
DocumentationStakeholdersArchitecture
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