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| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Agile 4Ls Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | 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 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 | High | High | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 2-6 h | 2-6 h | 45-90 min | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 3-10 | 4-12 | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |