After Action Review

This tool, used following the completion of an activity, shows whether anything could have or should have been done differently.

Also known as a post project appraisal, this is a process developed by the US Army to help teams to learn quickly from their successes and failures and share their learning with other teams.

It involves conducting a structured and facilitated discussion after a task or project has been completed to review what should have happened, what actually happened and why it happened; this allows participants to learn how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses in subsequent tasks or projects.

Definition from Department of Health Knowledge Management Framework

Reference: Knowledge management at WHO C Bailey 2005, World Health Organization

More information

This postcard describes the After Action Review tool in words and pictures.

View the NHS Knowledge Mobilisation Framework elearning module on After Action Reviews.

Contact the Knowledge for Healthcare team on [email protected] for the postcard in an accessible format.