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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Change Analysis |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 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. | For a deviation after a change, the method isolates the influence of the altered condition. It narrows down which differences are relevant and which are just accompanying noise. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 30-60 min | 45-120 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | 2-8 | 2-6 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Change Matrix, Cause Hypotheses, Validation Questions, Action List | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | Root causeQualityOperations | ChangeRoot causeTroubleshootingComparison | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality |