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| Criterion |  Agile Sprint Retrospective |  Operations After-Action Review |  Architecture arc42 |  Agile 4Ls Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | 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. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | 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. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 20-45 min | 1-2 Tage | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | Scrum Team | 3-12 | 1-4 | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Improvement actions, Team agreements | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | LearningOperationsImprovement | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |