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| Criterion | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective | ![]() Systems Thinking CATWOE Analysis | ![]() Agile Sprint Retrospective | ![]() Agile 4Ls Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | CATWOE structures a problem from six viewpoints and prevents too narrow a view of the situation. Different experiences of the system become comparably discussable this way. | 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. | 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 | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 45-90 min | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 | 3-8 | Scrum Team | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | CATWOE Canvas, Root Definition, Stakeholder Perspectives, Constraints | Improvement actions, Team agreements | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | Systems thinkingFramingStakeholders | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |



