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| Criterion | ![]() Operations After-Action Review | ![]() Agile Sprint Retrospective | ![]() Agile Sailboat Retrospective | ![]() Agile Starfish 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 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. | 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 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. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 45-90 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | Scrum Team | 4-12 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Improvement actions, Team agreements | Sailboat Board, Risks, Improvement Actions | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments |
Tags1 shared | LearningOperationsImprovement | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | RetrospectiveTeamImprovement | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam |



