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| Criterion |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Agile Sprint Retrospective |  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. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 45-90 min | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-3 | 4-12 | Scrum Team | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Improvement actions, Team agreements | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |