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Criterion
Visual Management workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Operations
Visual Management
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
Paper illustration for Fault Tree Analysis.
Operations
Fault Tree Analysis
Paper illustration of Barrier Analysis with its method-specific working model.
Operations
Barrier Analysis
Purposedifferent
With high tempo and many parallel topics, the method makes status, deviations, and priorities visible at a glance. It reduces search effort and prevents what matters from getting lost in daily work.When work processes are known only from accounts and the real context stays hidden, Contextual Inquiry makes behavior at the workplace visible. Observation and follow-up questions together show how people actually work, get interrupted, and improvise.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.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
LowMediumHighMedium
Timedifferent
Ongoing1-3 Wochen2-6 h2-4 h
Participantsdifferent
1-204-12 Beobachtungen3-82-6
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Visual Board, Status Indicators, Exception CuesField Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsFault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control ActionsBarrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog
Tagsno overlap
SignalsOperationsVisual management
UX researchObservationContext
RiskRoot causeSafety
Root causeSafetyIncident
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