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| Criterion | ![]() Decision Making Cynefin Workshop | ![]() Decision Making Argument Mapping | ![]() Decision Making Pre-Mortem | ![]() Engineering Failure Scenario Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When problems are unclear, chaotic, or only seemingly familiar, standard recipes fall short. A Cynefin Workshop sorts situations by the nature of their problem and connects them with matching action logic. | When statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 60-180 min | 1-3 h | 20–45 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-20 | 1-8 | Small cross-functional group | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Cynefin Map, Domain-specific Actions, Sensemaking Notes | Argument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Failure Scenarios, Risk Notes, Control Gaps, Test and Response Actions |
Tagsno overlap | ComplexitySensemakingDecision | SensemakingDecisionRationale | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | FailureResilienceRisk |



