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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  Operations Barrier Analysis |  Operations Fault Tree 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. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | 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. | For a critical top event with several possible triggers, the method logically models failure paths. It makes visible which combinations of conditions can lead to damage. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 2-6 h | 2-4 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-8 | 2-6 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Fault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control Actions |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | Root causeSafetyIncident | RiskRoot causeSafety |