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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible. | 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. | SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 1-4 h | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | 3-8 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Domain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternatives | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |