  We present a systematic comparison of the binary black hole (BBH) signal
waveform reconstructed by two independent and complementary approaches used in
LIGO and Virgo source inference: a template-based analysis, and a
morphology-independent analysis. We apply the two approaches to real events and
to two sets of simulated observations made by adding simulated BBH signals to
LIGO and Virgo detector noise. The first set is representative of the 10 BBH
events in the first Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-1). The second
set is constructed from a population of BBH systems with total mass and signal
strength in the ranges that ground based detectors are typically sensitive. We
find that the reconstruction quality of the GWTC-1 events is consistent with
the results of both sets of simulated signals. We also demonstrate a simulated
case where the presence of a mismodelled effect in the observed signal, namely
higher order modes, can be identified through the morphology-independent
analysis. This study is relevant for currently progressing and future
observational runs by LIGO and Virgo.
