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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Agile Affinity Estimation |  Decision Making Decision Rights Mapping |  Agile Bucket System |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | In organizations with many stakeholders, it often blurs who actually decides and who is merely consulted. It separates options, evaluation criteria, and open risks. The result is captured as a Decision Rights matrix and an agreement. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-90 min | 90-180 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-12 | 4-12 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items | Decision Rights Matrix, Agreement | Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, Split Candidates |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | DecisionGovernanceAlignmentResponsibility | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing |