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| Criterion |  Knowledge Modeling PARA Method |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | The PARA Method organizes knowledge into Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. It creates order when digital notes, files, and tasks no longer cleanly fit current work. | 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. | When improvement options need to be sorted more finely than just start and stop, it brings observations into clear kinds of action. This makes visible what should be done more, less, newly, or continued. | 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 | High | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h Setup, laufend | 2-6 h | 45-90 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1 | 3-10 | 4-12 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | PARA Structure, Project Notes, Knowledge Archive | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | KnowledgeProductivityOrganization | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |