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| Criterion | ![]() Operations Root Cause Analysis | ![]() Agile Bucket System | ![]() Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis | ![]() Agile Affinity Estimation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When a large batch of work needs a fast, rough estimate, it sorts items into predefined size buckets. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as a Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, and Split Candidates. | For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-4 h | 30-90 min | 2-6 h | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 3-12 | 3-10 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, Split Candidates | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing |



