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Criterion	Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting	Operations Fault Tree Analysis	Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis	Operations Kepner-Tregoe
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.	For a critical top event with several possible triggers, the method logically models failure paths. It makes visible which combinations of conditions can lead to damage.	For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability.	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	High	High	High
Timedifferent	30-240 min	2-6 h	2-6 h	2-8 h
Participantsdifferent	1-6	3-8	3-10	2-8
Formatdifferent	Workshop + async	Workshop + async	Workshop	Workshop + async
Outputdifferent	Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary	Fault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control Actions	FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions	Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan
Tagsno overlap	TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis	RiskRoot causeSafety	RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause	Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations