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| Criterion | ![]() Facilitation Dot Estimation | ![]() Operations Root Cause Analysis | ![]() Agile Affinity Estimation | ![]() Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When size or effort can only be estimated roughly, Dot Estimation condenses the group's experience into a quick range. It turns individual contributions into a visible selection. The result is captured as an Effort Heatmap, Risk Signals, and Discussion Targets. | 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. | When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes. | For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 5-20 min | 1-4 h | 30-90 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-20 | 3-8 | 3-12 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Effort Heatmap, Risk Signals, Discussion Targets | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions |
Tagsno overlap | EstimationEffortRisk | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause |



