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| Criterion | ![]() Operations Causal Factor Analysis | ![]() Decision Making Pre-Mortem | ![]() Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | 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 | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2-6 h | 20–45 min | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | Small cross-functional group | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |
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