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| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Future Reality Tree |  Systems Thinking Evaporating Cloud |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | A Future Reality Tree shows how desired actions are meant to lead to a better system state. The method checks whether a path of change holds together logically before time flows into implementation. | The method makes visible why two seemingly incompatible demands arise and which assumption must be tested to resolve the conflict. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2-4 h | 60-120 min | 45-90 min | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Future Reality Tree, Negative Branches, Assumption List, Improved Injections | Conflict Cloud, Assumption List, Breakthrough Ideas, Next Experiments | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | Theory of ConstraintsSystems thinkingChange | Theory of ConstraintsAssumptionsSystems thinking | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |