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| Criterion |  Agile WSJF |  Operations Ivy Lee Method |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When many tasks compete for the same capacity, it orders work by economic impact. It makes time lost, benefit, and effort comparable together. | With a restless workday full of too many open items, the method creates radical simplicity. It directs attention to a short sequence instead of a broad, still-open field. | 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. | 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 | High | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 5-10 min daily | 1-4 h | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 1 | 3-8 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Ranked Backlog, Cost-of-Delay Assumptions | Daily Priority List, Completion Notes | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | LeanEconomicsSequencePrioritization | PrioritizationProductivityExecution | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |