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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Operations 5 Whys |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 20–45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-6 | Small cross-functional group |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
