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| Criterion |  Agile Starfish Retrospective |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations 5 Whys |  Operations 8D Problem Solving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 1-4 h | 15-30 min | 1-6 Wochen |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 | 3-8 | 2-6 | 4-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | 8D Report, Containment Plan, Root Cause Evidence, Corrective Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | QualityProblem solvingRoot cause |