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Criterion
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
Paper illustration for Constraint Analysis.
Decision Making
Constraint Analysis
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.LASR helps development teams identify where their software falls short of important quality goals and which improvements to consider. A small group with existing system knowledge can make an initial assessment and investigate open questions in more detail.When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
45-120 min3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional30-90 min
Participantsdifferent
2-81 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 people2-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted DownsidesLean Mission Statement describing the software’s purpose, Prioritized quality goals and evaluation criteria, Risks and estimated gaps against quality goals, More closely examined findings and open checksConstraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries
Tagsno overlap
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean
ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions
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Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Paper illustration of a calibrated five-by-five risk matrix with response cards.
Decision Making
Risk Matrix