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Criterion
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration for Argument Mapping
Decision Making
Argument Mapping
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.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 statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on.
Complexitysame
MediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
45-120 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-3 h
Participantsdifferent
2-8Designers, developers as users, and facilitation1-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted DownsidesPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsArgument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale
Tagsno overlap
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
SensemakingDecisionRationale
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration for Constraint Analysis.
Decision Making
Constraint Analysis