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| Criterion | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective | ![]() Operations 8D Problem Solving | ![]() Operations Fishbone Diagram | ![]() Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 an acute quality or delivery problem, the method structures immediate protection and root cause work together. It keeps the situation stable while the actual cause is investigated cleanly. | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 1-6 Wochen | 30-60 min | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 | 4-10 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | 8D Report, Containment Plan, Root Cause Evidence, Corrective Action Plan | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | QualityProblem solvingRoot cause | Root causeQualityOperations | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |



