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| Criterion |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. | 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. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 2-6 h | 45-90 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-10 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas |
Tagsno overlap | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality |