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| Criterion |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |  Product Discovery Test Card |  Product Discovery MVP Test 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. | ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation. | The Test Card turns a critical assumption into a testable claim and specifies in advance which result counts as success. | When several minimal variants compete to answer the same question, it makes comparing and choosing between them cleaner. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as a Test Matrix and a Test Plan. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 20-35 min | 45-75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | 1-5 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations | Test Card with a pre-set threshold | Test Matrix, Test Plan |
Tagsno overlap | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryHypothesis | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryOptions |