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| Criterion |  Product Discovery User Story Mapping |  Operations Fault Tree Analysis |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When user goals and delivery scope could drift apart, it orders the journey from goal to slice. It makes visible where an MVP can genuinely be cut. | For a critical top event with several possible triggers, the method logically models failure paths. It makes visible which combinations of conditions can lead to damage. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | For a risk that can only be managed through multiple layers of protection, the method examines the effectiveness of each barrier. It shows where safeguards are missing, too weak, or fail under real conditions. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2-4 h | 2-6 h | 20–45 min | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 3-8 | Small cross-functional group | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Story Map, Release Slices, Backlog Candidates | Fault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control Actions | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | BacklogJourneyPlanningMVP | RiskRoot causeSafety | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | Root causeSafetyIncident |