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| Criterion | ![]() Decision Making Delphi Method | ![]() Operations Root Cause Analysis | ![]() Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree | ![]() Operations Causal Factor Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When knowledge is distributed and direct dominance should be avoided, groups quickly fall under the sway of their opinion leaders. The Delphi Method gathers assessments iteratively and gradually brings expert judgments closer together. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | 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. | 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 | Medium | High | High |
Timedifferent | 1-4 Wochen | 1-4 h | 2-6 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 6-30 Experten | 3-8 | 3-8 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Expert Forecast, Consensus Range, Assumption Notes | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions |
Tagsno overlap | ForecastingExpertsDecisionStrategy | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline |



