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| Criterion |  Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Business Strategy VRIO Framework |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When systems fail unexpectedly, spontaneous attempts often produce more noise than insight. Hypothesis-driven Troubleshooting translates symptoms into testable assumptions and makes troubleshooting learnable. | 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. | The VRIO Framework rates resources and capabilities on whether they are Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, and Organized. It compares strengths, risks, market logic, and courses of action. The result is captured as a VRIO table and strategic actions. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-240 min | 30-180 min | 90-180 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 1-6 | 3-6 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | VRIO Table, Strategic Actions | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | StrategyDiagnosisBusiness modelCapability | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |