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| Criterion |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | 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. | 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. | 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 | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 30-60 min | 20–45 min | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | Small cross-functional group | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |