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| Criterion |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Operations Process Mapping |  Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | With a confusing workflow that has many handoffs, the method makes the actual process visible. It shows where work is passed on, delayed, or duplicated, so improvement targets the right spots. | 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 disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 1-3 h | 30-240 min | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 3-10 | 1-6 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Process Map, Handoff List, Improvement Backlog | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | ProcessOperationsImprovement | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |