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| Criterion |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Architecture arc42 |  Architecture Views and Beyond |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | 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. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 1-2 Tage | 1-3 Tage | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-4 | 1-4 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Architecture Views, Cross-view Notes, Rationale | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option |
Tagsno overlap | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | DocumentationStakeholdersArchitecture | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs |