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Criterion
Paper illustration of a review with planned work, actual event sequence, comparison, and assigned improvement actions.
Operations
After-Action Review
A structured reflection surfaces what was liked, learned, lacked, and longed for. It is a conversation format and does not validate actions automatically.
Agile
4Ls Retrospective
Paper illustration for Sailboat Retrospective
Agile
Sailboat Retrospective
The Scrum Team inspects people, interactions, processes, tools, and the Definition of Done, then agrees on a few testable improvements.
Agile
Sprint Retrospective
Purposedifferent
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.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.When a team wants to read momentum, brakes, and risks together, it offers an easily understandable picture of the situation. It makes drive, obstacles, and headwind visible in the same picture.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.
Complexitysame
LowLowLowLow
Timedifferent
20-45 min45–75 min45-90 minUp to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter
Participantsdifferent
3-12Team members involved4-12Scrum Team
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement ActionsSailboat Board, Risks, Improvement ActionsImprovement actions, Team agreements
Tagsno overlap
LearningOperationsImprovement
RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam
RetrospectiveTeamImprovement
RetrospectiveImprovementLearning
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