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| Criterion | ![]() Operations After-Action Review | ![]() Operations Learning Review | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective | ![]() Agile Start Stop Continue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 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 team wants to deliberately adjust its working behavior, it makes habits visible and assessable. It focuses on concrete changes instead of diffuse mood. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-3 h | 45-90 min | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-10 | 4-12 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Learning Review Notes, System Factors, Improvement Actions | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Start Stop Continue Board, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | LearningOperationsImprovement | LearningRetrospectiveIncidentOperations | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | RetrospectiveImprovementTeamReflection |



