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| Criterion |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Operations Learning Review |  Agile 4Ls Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 improvement options need to be sorted more finely than just start and stop, it brings observations into clear kinds of action. This makes visible what should be done more, less, newly, or continued. | After a project phase with mixed results, the method makes learning from the individual case reusable. It connects events, decisions, and systemic conditions into robust insights. | When a sprint should not only be assessed but also learned from, it captures experience in clear learning categories. It records what worked, what's missing, and what should run differently next time. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 45-90 min | 1-3 h | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-3 | 4-12 | 3-10 | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Learning Review Notes, System Factors, Improvement Actions | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | LearningRetrospectiveIncidentOperations | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |