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| Criterion |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  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 keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | 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 | Medium | High | High |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 1-4 h | 2-6 h | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-8 | 3-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |