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Criterion
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
Paper illustration of a yellow story card, blue rule cards, green example cards and a red question card on a light workspace.
Agile
Example Mapping
A 5 Whys working surface connects an observable problem with evidenced causes, marked uncertainty and concrete countermeasures with ownership.
Operations
5 Whys
Paper illustration of Specification by Example with a method-specific labelled workspace.
Agile
Specification by Example
Purposedifferent
When work processes are known only from accounts and the real context stays hidden, Contextual Inquiry makes behavior at the workplace visible. Observation and follow-up questions together show how people actually work, get interrupted, and improvise.When a story carries business rules and exceptions, it brings clarity before implementation. It makes examples, open questions, and boundaries visible enough that the logic becomes jointly sound.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.When business rules need to become precise, it ties language, example, and test together. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as an Example Table and Acceptance Tests.
Complexitydifferent
MediumLowLowMedium
Timedifferent
1-3 Wochen30-60 min15-30 min60-90 min pro Feature
Participantsdifferent
4-12 Beobachtungen3-72-63-6
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsExample Map, Acceptance Criteria, Open QuestionsRoot cause notes, CountermeasuresExample Table, Acceptance Tests
Tagsno overlap
UX researchObservationContext
Behavior-Driven DevelopmentRequirementsExamplesRefinement
Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving
AgileRequirementsExamplesBehavior-Driven Development
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