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Criterion
Software Architecture Canvas method illustration showing its working structure
Architecture
Software Architecture Canvas
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration for Alignment Mapping.
Facilitation
Alignment Mapping
Paper illustration of Power-Interest Grid with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Facilitation
Power Interest Grid
Purposedifferent
The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly.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.When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable.When many stakeholders compete for attention at once, the Power Interest Grid sorts them by influence and stake. It turns individual contributions into a visible selection. The result is captured as a Power Interest Grid and a stakeholder-specific strategy.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
1-2 h2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-2 h30-60 min
Participantsdifferent
3-10Designers, developers as users, and facilitation4-122-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality AttributesPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsAlignment Map, Open Issues, Decision QuestionsPower Interest Grid, Strategy per Stakeholder
Tagsno overlap
CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation
StakeholdersFacilitationAlignmentPlanning
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