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Selected:TimelineATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method)Root Cause AnalysisCausal Factor Analysis
| Criterion |  Facilitation Timeline |  Architecture ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method) |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a project, incident, or change process is only remembered in fragments, Timeline brings the sequence back into a readable form. It makes turning points, precursors, and after-effects recognizable over the course of time. | ATAM helps teams weigh architecture decisions when quality goals compete. The team considers business goals, stakeholder expectations, and technical decisions together. The evaluation shows which risks need further investigation. | 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 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | Several meetings plus preparation and analysis; total effort depends on scope | 1-4 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | Evaluation team, architects, and relevant stakeholders | 3-8 | 3-10 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Timeline, Milestones, Insight Notes | Prioritized quality scenarios in a utility tree, Architecture risks with reasoning and assumptions, Sensitivity and trade-off points, Findings report with open investigations | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions |
Tagsno overlap | TimelineFacilitationSequence | ArchitectureQualityRiskTradeoffsStakeholders | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline |