First, we close the multivariate analysis of a canonical problem concerning
short reset words (SYN), as it was started by Fernau et al. (2013). Namely, we
prove that the problem, parameterized by the number of states, does not admit a
polynomial kernel unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses. Second, we
consider a related canonical problem concerning synchronizing road colorings
(SRCP). Here we give a similar complete multivariate analysis. Namely, we show
that the problem, parameterized by the number of states, admits a polynomial
kernel and we close the previous research of restrictions to particular values
of both the alphabet size and the maximum word length