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| Criterion |  Operations After-Action Review |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |  Operations Learning Review |  Agile 4Ls 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. | 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 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 | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 30-90 min | 1-3 h | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-12 | 3-10 | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline | Learning Review Notes, System Factors, Improvement Actions | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tags1 shared | LearningOperationsImprovement | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability | LearningRetrospectiveIncidentOperations | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |