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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | High | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 2-6 h | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |