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| Criterion |  Business Strategy VRIO Framework |  Architecture SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) |  Operations 5 Whys |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | The VRIO Framework rates resources and capabilities on whether they are Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, and Organized. It compares strengths, risks, market logic, and courses of action. The result is captured as a VRIO table and strategic actions. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 90-180 min | Preparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope | 15-30 min | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-6 | Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting | 2-6 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | VRIO Table, Strategic Actions | 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 | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | StrategyDiagnosisBusiness modelCapability | ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |