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Criterion
Paper illustration of two people facing each other, speech bubbles and an open interview notebook.
UX Research
User Interviews
Paper illustration for Alignment Mapping.
Facilitation
Alignment Mapping
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)
Purposedifferent
When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible.When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable.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.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumMedium
Timedifferent
30–60 min per interview1-2 h3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional
Participantsdifferent
1 participant per interview4-121 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 people
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Interview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryAlignment Map, Open Issues, Decision QuestionsLean 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 checks
Tagsno overlap
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation
ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration: scenarios and architectural decisions are connected to identified risks.
Architecture
ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)
Paper illustration of Power-Interest Grid with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Facilitation
Power Interest Grid
Paper illustration for Problem Framing Workshop.
Facilitation
Problem Framing Workshop
Stakeholder Mapping
Facilitation
Stakeholder Mapping