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| Criterion |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Product Strategy ICE Scoring |
|---|---|---|---|
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. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 45-120 min | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-8 | 2-8 |
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 | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | ICE Table, Top Idea List |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | PrioritizationScoringGrowthDecision |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
