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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 Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Operations
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Paper fishbone diagram with a measurable effect at the head and six labeled cause branches.
Operations
Fishbone Diagram
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.For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability.When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumHighLow
Timedifferent
45-120 min3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional2-6 h30-60 min
Participantsdifferent
2-81 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 people3-102-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop
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 checksFMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation ActionsFishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog
Tagsno overlap
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean
RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause
Root causeQualityOperations
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