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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Decision Making Risk Matrix |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects 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. | 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. | When a project faces many possible disruptions, it quickly becomes unclear which risks deserve attention first. It separates options, evaluation criteria, and open risks. The result is captured as a Risk Matrix and a Top Risk List. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 30-60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 3-10 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Risk Matrix, Top Risk List | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskDecisionPrioritizationAssessment | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause |