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| Criterion |  Agile Affinity Estimation |  Agile Bucket System |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes. | When a large batch of work needs a fast, rough estimate, it sorts items into predefined size buckets. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as a Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, and Split Candidates. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | 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. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 30-90 min | 30-90 min | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-12 | 1-6 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items | Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, Split Candidates | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | DecisionTreeOptions | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |