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| Criterion | ![]() Engineering Golden Path | ![]() Engineering Fault Isolation | ![]() Operations Causal Factor Analysis | ![]() Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When teams need a reliable default path for frequent use, sprawl quickly emerges without any guiding logic. Golden Path bundles the preferred path so good practice becomes easy and deviation becomes deliberate. | 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 an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 30-180 min | 2-6 h | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-6 | 3-10 | 2-6 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | Root causeSafetyIncident |



