Post-Mortem Document Template Example (Updated 2024)

How to Write a Project Post Mortem Using a Template
Project Post Mortem Documents are a crucial tool for businesses to capture and organize key insights from project experiences, successes, and challenges. These documents provide a concise and structured format for summarizing important points, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned and informed. In this blog post, we will outline the key elements to include in a Project Post Mortem Template, ensuring that you have a thorough and actionable understanding of your project's outcomes.

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Project Post Mortem Template

1. Incident Overview
   1. High level overview of what happened
2. Root Cause
   1. The final root cause of the incident, the thing identified that needs to change in order to prevent this class of incident from happening again.
3. Backlog Check
   1. Review your engineering backlog to find out if there was any unplanned work there that could have prevented this incident, or at least reduced its impact. A clear-eyed assessment of the backlog can shed light on past decisions around priority and risk.
4. Recurrence
   1. Now that you know the root cause, can you look back and see any other incidents that could have the same root cause? If yes, note what mitigation was attempted in those incidents and ask why this incident occurred again.
5. Lessons Learned
   1. Discuss what went well in the incident response, what could have been improved, and where there are opportunities for improvement.
6. Corrective Actions
   1. Describe the corrective action ordered to prevent this class of incident in the future. Note who is responsible and when they have to complete the work and where that work is being tracked.

Using the Project Post Mortem Document

The Project Post Mortem Document is a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of a project, identifying areas of improvement, and optimizing processes. It is typically created after the project's completion. This document is essential for ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned and informed about the project's outcomes and opportunities. It is recommended to share the Project Post Mortem Document with all stakeholders to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Example: Project Post Mortem:

Post Mortem: Incident HOT-20234 - Service Outage Due to Connection Leaks

Incident Overview:

On June 10, 2024, at 10:45 AM, our service experienced a significant outage lasting approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. The outage was caused by a bug in connection pool handling, leading to leaked connections under failure conditions, combined with a lack of visibility into connection state.

Root Cause:

The root cause of the incident was a bug in connection pool handling that led to leaked connections under failure conditions. This was exacerbated by the lack of visibility into connection state, making it difficult to identify and address the issue promptly.

Backlog Check:

Upon reviewing our engineering backlog, we found that there were no specific items that could have improved this service. However, there were ongoing tasks related to improvements in flow typing, which were not yet completed. Additionally, there were tickets submitted for improving integration tests, but they had not been successful.

Recurrence:

This same root cause resulted in incidents HOT-13432, HOT-14932, and HOT-19452. In those incidents, mitigation attempts included manual auto-scaling rate limits and the introduction of a secondary mechanism to collect distributed rate information across the cluster to guide scaling effects. Despite these efforts, the incident recurred due to the lack of a comprehensive solution.

Lessons Learned:

• Need a unit test to verify the rate-limiter for work has been properly maintained.
• Bulk operation workloads, which are atypical of normal operation, should be reviewed.
• Bulk ops should start slowly and be monitored, increasing when service metrics appear nominal.

Corrective Actions:

To prevent this class of incident in the future, the following corrective actions have been ordered:

• Development Team: Implement a comprehensive solution to prevent connection leaks, including a unit test to verify the rate-limiter for work and a secondary mechanism to collect distributed rate information across the cluster. (Due: June 24, 2024)
• System Architects: Optimize the database architecture to improve visibility into connection state. (Due: July 1, 2024)
• QA Team: Conduct extensive testing of the connection pool handling and rate-limiter to ensure the solution is robust. (Due: July 8, 2024)

Key Takeaways:

• The incident was caused by a bug in connection pool handling and a lack of visibility into connection state.
• Similar incidents have occurred in the past, highlighting the need for a comprehensive solution.
• Corrective actions have been assigned to prevent this class of incident in the future.

Action Items:

1. Development Team:
   • Implement a comprehensive solution to prevent connection leaks.
2. System Architects:
   • Optimize the database architecture.
3. QA Team:
   • Conduct extensive testing of the connection pool handling and rate-limiter.

By following this template and using the example provided, you will be able to create comprehensive Project Post Mortem Documents that provide valuable insights into your project's outcomes. These documents will serve as a guide for optimizing project processes, improving customer satisfaction, and driving business growth.