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| Criterion |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |  Agile Affinity Estimation |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | 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. | When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes. | 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 | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-4 h | 2-4 h | 30-90 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 2-6 | 3-12 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeSafetyIncident | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |