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| Criterion |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | 45-90 min | 20–45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | Small cross-functional group |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeQualityOperations | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning |
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