After action report

An after action report (or AAR) is any form of retrospective analysis on a given sequence of goal-oriented actions previously undertaken, generally by the author himself.

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, while in most cases AARs are a combination of both.

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.

Analytical AARs

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

Objectives

Analytical AARs have three central objectives:

• Identifying problematic issues and needs for improvement
• Proposing measures to counteract problematic elements
• Obtaining “lessons learned”¹

Structure

1. Overview
2. Goals and objectives
3. Analysis of outcomes
4. Analysis of the performance shown on critical tasks
5. Summary
6. Recommendations¹

Footnotes

1. Lessons Learned From School Crises and Emergencies Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2007

See also

• After action review

External links

• US Army A Leader's Guide to After-Action Review (TC25-20).
• Guide for Analytical AARs Implementation
• Europa Universalis III (Compendium of Literary AARs)
• The Blue Casket, a collection of videogame after-action reports.