After action report


An after action report is any form of retrospective analysis on a given sequence of goal-oriented actions previously undertaken, generally by the author themselves.
The two principal forms of AARs are the literary AAR, intended for recreational use, and the analytical AAR, exercised as part of a process of performance evaluation and improvement. In most cases, AARs are a combination of both. Most analytical AARs are conducted over a contemporary problem or situation that has occurred in the past, is happening right now, or what could happen in the future.

History

The first AARs were developed by army generals. One of the first and best examples of an AAR is Julius Caesar’s “Commentaries on the Gallic War”.
Contemporary examples of AARs include project evaluations in business, as well as summaries of large gaming sessions in videogame culture.

Literary AARS

Literary AARs can be formal or informal documents that seek syntax and linguistic improvement. Many research papers published under an academic journal can be considered a literary AAR. There might not be much of a difference between literary AARs and analytical AARs in terms of research papers, but the key difference is analytical seeks to improve performance while literary seeks to improve style.

Analytical AARs

Analytical AARs are formal documents intended to serve as aids to performance evaluation and improvement, by registering situation–response interactions, analyzing critical procedures, determining their effectiveness and efficiency, and proposing adjustments and recommendations.

Objectives

Analytical AARs have three central objectives:
  1. Overview
  2. Goals and objectives
  3. Analysis of outcomes
  4. Analysis of the performance shown on critical tasks
  5. Summary
  6. Recommendations

    Examples