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| Criterion | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective | ![]() Systems Thinking CATWOE Analysis | ![]() Agile Sprint Retrospective | ![]() Agile Sailboat 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 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 | 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 | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 | 3-8 | Scrum Team | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | CATWOE Canvas, Root Definition, Stakeholder Perspectives, Constraints | Improvement actions, Team agreements | Sailboat Board, Risks, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | Systems thinkingFramingStakeholders | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | RetrospectiveTeamImprovement |



