Root Cause Analysis is the term most used for this kind of exercise in many (non-software) engineering disciplines. The article even mentions root cause so not

Root Cause Analysis is the term most used for this kind of exercise in many (non-software) engineering disciplines. The article even mentions root cause so not sure how they didn't find that term in their searching. When doing a root cause analysis where one or more of the identified causes is a person failed to perform an action adequately, the "blameless" bit is supposed to be about digging further to understand why they didn't. Was it lack of training or experience? or maybe they were overloaded with work (fatigued, distracted)? or was it due to pressure to get the thing done by a deadline and therefore steps were skipped? etc A retrospective, to me is more about continual improvement. Looking at what worked and what didn't in the last project/sprint. A root cause analysis is a different thing that you do when something has gone wrong that shouldn't have that had major consequences.