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| Criterion |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Operations 5 Whys |  Agile Sailboat Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | 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. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 2-8 h | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 4-12 | 2-6 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Sailboat Board, Risks, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | RetrospectiveTeamImprovement |