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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |  Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | After an incident with damage or a near miss, the method creates a sober field for learning without assigning blame. It directs attention to the course of events, conditions, and effective countermeasures. | For a risk that can only be managed through multiple layers of protection, the method examines the effectiveness of each barrier. It shows where safeguards are missing, too weak, or fail under real conditions. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 2-6 h | 30-90 min | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-10 | 3-12 | 2-6 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability | Root causeSafetyIncident |