'''ATAM'''In stands[[software forengineering]], '''Architecture TradeoffTrade-off Analysis Method''' (ATAM) is a risk-mitigation process used early in the software development life cycle.
ItATAM was developed by the [[Software Engineering Institute]] at the [[Carnegie Mellon University]]. Its purpose is to help choose a suitable architecture for a software system by discovering tradeoffstrade-offs and sensitivity points.
A short definition: ATAM is amost riskbeneficial mitigationwhen method that can occurdone early in the software development life-cycle when itthe iscost relativelyof inexpensivechanging toarchitectures change architecturalis decisionsminimal.
