An after-action review (AAR) is a structured review process, or debrief—usually a meeting— for project teams to reflect on an event or task they have just accomplished and analyze what happened and why, what worked well, and what can be done better or differently in the future.

This module provides an overview of after-action reviews (AARs) as an internal knowledge management approach. After-action reviews are a simple but effective way to document best practices, identify and apply lessons learned, capture diverse perspectives, encourage constructive feedback, and facilitate performance improvement. The module answers the who, what, when, where, why, and how of AARs, gives participants the chance to explore the AAR experience in small discussion groups and individual reflection, and offers a simple AAR template for easy use or adaptation.