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| Criterion | ![]() Operations Theory of Constraints | ![]() Agile Mad Sad Glad | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For a system that does not get faster despite effort, the method directs attention to the bottleneck. It concentrates improvement on the point that actually limits throughput. | When a team's or workshop's mood needs to become readable, it structures emotional signals with little setup. It makes strain, relief, and sources of energy tangible. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 2-4 h Analyse, laufend | 30-60 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-10 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Constraint Map, Improvement Plan, Flow Metrics | Emotion Board, Themes, Action Items | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments |
Tagsno overlap | OperationsConstraintsFlowImprovement | RetrospectiveTeamReflection | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.






