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| Criterion |  Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting |  Facilitation Six Thinking Hats |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  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. | When a topic gets stuck too quickly in the same thinking mode, Six Thinking Hats deliberately separates the perspectives. This means facts, risks, creativity, and emotional signals get worked through one after another instead of mixed together. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | 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 | Medium | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 30-240 min | 45-90 min | 30-90 min | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 4-12 | 1-6 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary | Perspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action Items | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis | FacilitationOptionsDecision | DecisionTreeOptions | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |