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Selected:Current Reality TreeDesign SprintARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Causal Factor Analysis
| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  Innovation Design Sprint |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | When the product question is unclear and time pressure is high, the method takes a team from an open idea to a testable solution. It connects problem understanding, decision, and learning in one compact format, lowering the risk of spending a lot of energy on a mere guess. | ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification. | For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. |
Complexitydifferent | High | High | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 2-6 h | 4-5 Tage | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 5-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Prototype, Test Findings, Decision Rationale | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | Design sprintPrototypeValidationInnovation | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline |