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| Criterion |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Product Discovery Jobs to Be Done |  Operations Root Cause Tree Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When switching motives and progress are unclear, it reconstructs the situation from real customer circumstances. It shows why a switch happens and what kind of progress is being sought. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. | 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. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 1-3 Wochen | 1-3 h | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 5-12 Interviews | 2-8 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Job Stories, Outcome Statements, Opportunity List | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | CustomerOutcomesNeeds | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality | Root causeSafetyIncident |