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| Criterion |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |  Operations 5 Whys |  Operations Root Cause Tree Analysis |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 15-30 min | 1-3 h | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 2-6 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tags1 shared | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |