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| Criterion |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Architecture C4 Model |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | The C4 Model makes a system legible across several resolution levels, from context down to code. It suits situations where different audiences need to understand the same architecture from different altitudes. | 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 systems fail unexpectedly, spontaneous attempts often produce more noise than insight. Hypothesis-driven Troubleshooting translates symptoms into testable assumptions and makes troubleshooting learnable. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 1-4 h | 1-4 h | 30-240 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 1-5 | 3-8 | 1-6 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Context Diagram, Container Diagram, Component Diagram | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | ArchitectureCommunicationVisualization | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis |