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| Criterion |  Operations After-Action Review |  Operations Learning Review |  Agile Sprint Retrospective |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 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 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-3 h | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-10 | Scrum Team | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Learning Review Notes, System Factors, Improvement Actions | Improvement actions, Team agreements | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline |
Tags1 shared | LearningOperationsImprovement | LearningRetrospectiveIncidentOperations | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability |