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| Criterion |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Operations A3 Problem Solving |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects 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 a complex deviation with several people involved, the method bundles problem, analysis, and decision onto one page. It creates a shared working space where causes, countermeasures, and follow-up fit together. | 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. | For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 | 2-5 | 2-8 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | A3 Report, Action Plan, Root Cause Analysis | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | LeanProblem solvingCoachingOperations | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause |