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| Criterion |  UX Research Contextual Inquiry |  Knowledge Modeling Knowledge Mapping |  Engineering Failure Scenario Analysis |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | Knowledge Mapping makes knowledge, gaps, and transfer paths visible across a field. It fits when expertise should not just exist but also be findable and transferable. | In critical processes, it is not enough to plan only for the normal case. Failure Scenario Analysis looks at the path into failure and shows which failures, chains, and control gaps cause the most damage. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | 1-3 h | 1-3 h | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 3-12 | 3-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Knowledge Map, Critical Knowledge Areas, Transfer Plan | Failure Scenarios, Risk Notes, Control Gaps, Test and Response Actions | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | KnowledgeMappingRisk | FailureResilienceRisk | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |