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| Criterion |  Product Strategy SMART Goals |  Business Strategy Strategy Map |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When goals are formulated too generally, it brings measurability, direction, and timing into shape. It prevents intentions from staying without clear verification. | A Strategy Map translates strategy into a few connected objectives across perspectives such as finance, customers, processes, and learning. This makes visible which capabilities and activities are meant to drive which results. | 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. | 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 | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 15-30 min | 2-4 h workshop plus review | 2-6 h | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-8 | 4-10 | 3-10 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | SMART Goal, Measurement Note, Deadline | Strategy Map, Objective Set, Cause-Effect Hypotheses | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | GoalsPlanningMeasurementAlignment | AlignmentExecutionGoalsCausality | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | Root causeSafetyIncident |