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| Criterion |  Operations PDCA Cycle |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For an improvement that still has to prove itself in everyday work, the method runs it through small learning loops. It connects planning, checking, and standardization into a repeatable learning mode. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | 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. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1 h bis mehrere Wochen | 20–45 min | 30-90 min | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-8 | Small cross-functional group | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | PDCA Log, Experiment Plan, Learning Outcome, Standard Change | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | Continuous improvementLeanExperiments | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |