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| Criterion | ![]() Facilitation Timeline | ![]() Facilitation Open Space Technology | ![]() 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. | When a complex topic does not yet have a fitting agenda, Open Space Technology hands topic ownership back to the participants. The format suits questions that only move forward when real interest determines the order. | 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 | 0.5-2 Tage | 1-4 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 20-500+ | 3-8 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Timeline, Milestones, Insight Notes | Session Marketplace, Proceedings, Action Topics | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions |
Tagsno overlap | TimelineFacilitationSequence | FacilitationLarge groupAutonomy | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline |



