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| Criterion | ![]() Decision Making Argument Mapping | ![]() Systems Thinking Evaporating Cloud | ![]() Decision Making Trade-off Analysis | ![]() Decision Making Constraint Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on. | The method makes visible why two seemingly incompatible demands arise and which assumption must be tested to resolve the conflict. | 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. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h | 60-120 min | 45-120 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Argument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale | Conflict Cloud, Assumption List, Breakthrough Ideas, Next Experiments | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries |
Tagsno overlap | SensemakingDecisionRationale | Theory of ConstraintsAssumptionsSystems thinking | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions |



