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| Criterion |  Operations Waste Analysis |  Agile Affinity Estimation |  Agile Bucket System |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For a process that keeps people busy but creates little value, the method exposes waste. It directs attention to unnecessary movement, waiting times, rework, and overdelivery. | When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes. | When a large batch of work needs a fast, rough estimate, it sorts items into predefined size buckets. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as a Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, and Split Candidates. | When delivery work dissolves into wait times, handoffs, and hidden effort, Value Stream Mapping makes the actual flow visible. The method exposes bottlenecks, idle time, and feedback loops so lead time and improvement levers become tangible. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 30-90 min | 30-90 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-12 | 3-12 | 4-10 |
Formatsame | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Waste Map, Prioritized Waste, Improvement Backlog | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items | Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, Split Candidates | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list |
Tagsno overlap | WasteLeanProcess improvement | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | LeanFlowWasteDelivery |