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| Criterion |  UX Research Contextual Inquiry |  Engineering Kanban |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |  Operations Theory of Constraints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 work sits in too many parallel streams, throughput suffers and no one sees the bottlenecks. Kanban makes the flow of work visible and limits overload so a system becomes calmer and more predictable. | For a flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput. | For a system that does not get faster despite effort, the method directs attention to the bottleneck. It concentrates improvement on the point that actually limits throughput. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | Ongoing | 1-3 h | 2-4 h Analyse, laufend |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 2-12 | 3-8 | 3-12 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures | Constraint Map, Improvement Plan, Flow Metrics |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | FlowVisual managementDelivery | FlowMeasurementConstraints | OperationsConstraintsFlowImprovement |