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| Criterion |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Systems Thinking CATWOE Analysis |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | CATWOE structures a problem from six viewpoints and prevents too narrow a view of the situation. Different experiences of the system become comparably discussable this way. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 30-90 min | 45-90 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-6 | 3-8 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | CATWOE Canvas, Root Definition, Stakeholder Perspectives, Constraints | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries |
Tagsno overlap | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | DecisionTreeOptions | Systems thinkingFramingStakeholders | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions |