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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | 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 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 2-6 h | 30-90 min | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 3-10 | 2-8 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Root causeSafetyIncident |