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| Criterion |  Operations After-Action Review |  Operations Process Mapping |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |  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. | With a confusing workflow that has many handoffs, the method makes the actual process visible. It shows where work is passed on, delayed, or duplicated, so improvement targets the right spots. | For a flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-3 h | 1-3 h | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-10 | 3-8 | Scrum Team |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Process Map, Handoff List, Improvement Backlog | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures | Improvement actions, Team agreements |
Tagsno overlap | LearningOperationsImprovement | ProcessOperationsImprovement | FlowMeasurementConstraints | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning |