#MilitaryDebrief
Side-by-Side Comparison of Retrospectives and Hot Washes
18 November 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
Participants at conferences and other events where Scott M. Graffius has delivered talks and workshops have sought clarity on the distinctions between retrospectives and hot washes. Particularly by those possibly in intelligence or military communities, the question has been asked with increasing frequency. Based on that, Graffius decided to develop this concise article.
Retrospectives (including post-project reviews) and hot washes are valuable practices for distilling actionable insights and enhancing future performance. But they serve distinct purposes and contexts including differences in timing and intent. Retrospectives are usually conducted at the end of an agile sprint or project, where the team reflects on what went well, what didn’t go well, and any changes to be implemented as improvements going forward. Hot washes happen immediately after a high-stakes event or operation to address real-time challenges and inform swift adjustments or decisions.
The visual shown at the top of this article provides a side-by-side comparison of retrospectives and hot washes including the typical characteristics and strategies unique to each. See the Permission Request Information section of this article if you'd like to request use of the copyrighted visual. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
Here's the text from the visual:
Retrospectives
Hot Washes
Read on to see and learn:
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
References/Sources
Permission Request Information
To request permission to use the visual shown at the top of this article, email Scott M. Graffius. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, November 18). Side-by-Side Comparison of Retrospectives and Hot Washes. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/retrospectives-and-hot-washes.html.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Short Link for Article
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/retro-hot
JPG | PNG
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Participants at conferences and other events where Scott M. Graffius has delivered talks and workshops have sought clarity on the distinctions between retrospectives and hot washes. Particularly by those possibly in intelligence or military communities, the question has been asked with increasing frequency. Based on that, Graffius decided to develop this concise article.
Retrospectives (including post-project reviews) and hot washes are valuable practices for distilling actionable insights and enhancing future performance. But they serve distinct purposes and contexts including differences in timing and intent. Retrospectives are usually conducted at the end of an agile sprint or project, where the team reflects on what went well, what didn’t go well, and any changes to be implemented as improvements going forward. Hot washes happen immediately after a high-stakes event or operation to address real-time challenges and inform swift adjustments or decisions.
The visual shown at the top of this article provides a side-by-side comparison of retrospectives and hot washes including the typical characteristics and strategies unique to each. See the Permission Request Information section of this article if you'd like to request use of the copyrighted visual. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
Here's the text from the visual:
Retrospectives
- Also Known as: Post-project review, lessons learned meeting, post-mortem, sprint retrospective, project debriefing, project review
- Intent: Provide actionable insights for future projects or iterations
- Context: Project management (agile or otherwise) in technology or business
- Examples of Use Cases: Evaluating a sprint, project completion, or a product launch
- Participants: Scrum team or project team; sometimes others participate as well
- Scheduling: Scheduled in advance
- Timing: End of a sprint, project phase, or entire project
- Duration: 30-90 minutes
- Focus: Identifying successes, challenges, and changes to be made for future work
- Goal: Drive continuous improvement
- Strategy: Structured and reflective, use prompts (see Questions to Ask)
- Questions to Ask: What worked well? What didn’t? What should we change going forward?
- Facilitator Role: Scrum Master, project manager, or team leader
- Methods Employed: Retrospective frameworks, whiteboards, sticky notes, collaborative applications like Miro or Trello
- Documentation: Usually formal (written), with a report documenting findings and recommendations
- Emotional Tone: Fostering openness, introspection, and learning in a collaborative setting
Hot Washes
- Also Known as: Hot debrief, mission debrief, operational debrief, rapid debrief, tactical debrief, after-action review, immediate action review, post-event analysis
- Intent: Capture lessons while fresh and inform immediate adjustments or decisions
- Context: High-stakes operational settings such as intelligence, military, or emergency response
- Examples of Use Cases: Assessing a high-stakes intelligence operation or an emergency response
- Participants: Individuals involved in the immediate event or operation
- Scheduling: Not scheduled in advance; occurs as needed
- Timing: Immediately after an event, incident, mission, or exercise
- Duration: 15–30 minutes, focused on speed and efficiency
- Focus: Assessing immediate challenges and corrective actions required now
- Goal: Implement real-time changes as needed
- Strategy: Rapid, real-time, and conversational—focused on urgent issues
- Questions to Ask: What went wrong? What needs immediate attention? What actions should we take now?
- Facilitator Role: Team leader, mission commander, or operational lead
- Methods Employed: Quick debriefs, oral discussions, brief note-taking
- Documentation: Often informal (verbal), with key points summarized quickly for immediate use; there may or may not be a written report
- Emotional Tone: Urgent, action-oriented, and often high-energy
Read on to see and learn:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- References/Sources,
- Permission Request Information,
- How to Cite This Article,
- and more.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
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Permission Request Information
To request permission to use the visual shown at the top of this article, email Scott M. Graffius. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, November 18). Side-by-Side Comparison of Retrospectives and Hot Washes. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/retrospectives-and-hot-washes.html.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Short Link for Article
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/retro-hot
JPG | PNG
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.