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| Criterion |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Agile Sprint Retrospective |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |  Operations After-Action Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | When a sprint is over and friction shouldn't simply be carried forward, it opens the view onto collaboration and patterns. It creates space to see causes and changes together. | After an incident with damage or a near miss, the method creates a sober field for learning without assigning blame. It directs attention to the course of events, conditions, and effective countermeasures. | After missions or project phases with unclear outcomes, the method makes visible what actually happened and what can be learned from it. It separates course, effect, and causes so experience turns into solid improvement. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 30-90 min | 20-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-3 | Scrum Team | 3-12 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Improvement actions, Team agreements | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability | LearningOperationsImprovement |