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| Criterion |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Operations Barrier Analysis |  Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | In technical failures, the visible symptom often gets mixed up with the actual cause. Fault Isolation narrows the fault space and progressively reduces which part of the system is truly affected. | For a risk that can only be managed through multiple layers of protection, the method examines the effectiveness of each barrier. It shows where safeguards are missing, too weak, or fail under real conditions. | When systems fail unexpectedly, spontaneous attempts often produce more noise than insight. Hypothesis-driven Troubleshooting translates symptoms into testable assumptions and makes troubleshooting learnable. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 2-4 h | 30-240 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 2-6 | 1-6 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | Root causeSafetyIncident | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |