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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Architecture arc42 |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 45-90 min | 1-2 Tage | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | 2-8 | 1-4 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |