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| Criterion |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Operations 5 Whys |  Operations A3 Problem Solving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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 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 complex deviation with several people involved, the method bundles problem, analysis, and decision onto one page. It creates a shared working space where causes, countermeasures, and follow-up fit together. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 2-8 | 2-6 | 2-5 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | A3 Report, Action Plan, Root Cause Analysis |
Tagsno overlap | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | LeanProblem solvingCoachingOperations |