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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Operations 5 Whys |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When work sits in too many parallel streams, throughput suffers and no one sees the bottlenecks. Kanban makes the flow of work visible and limits overload so a system becomes calmer and more predictable. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | 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. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 2-8 | 2-6 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |