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| Criterion |  Product Strategy Impact Mapping |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a goal needs to be connected to several possible paths, it shows chains of impact instead of feature lists. It connects business goal, behavior change, and measures. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-90 min | 2-4 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 2-8 | 2-6 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Impact Map, Outcome Hypotheses, Delivery Options | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions |
Tagsno overlap | OutcomesStrategyBehaviorPlanning | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Root causeSafetyIncident | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline |