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| Criterion |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |  Facilitation Six Thinking Hats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. | When a topic gets stuck too quickly in the same thinking mode, Six Thinking Hats deliberately separates the perspectives. This means facts, risks, creativity, and emotional signals get worked through one after another instead of mixed together. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 30-90 min | 1-2 h | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 1-6 | 4-12 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions | Perspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action Items |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | DecisionTreeOptions | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation | FacilitationOptionsDecision |