Postmortem: Learning from Every Incident
Turn every outage into improvement with a structured postmortem.
An incident is resolved, but do you really understand what happened? The postmortem (or RCA - Root Cause Analysis) is a document that analyzes the incident to prevent it from happening again.
You don't need a 20-page document. A simple but structured postmortem is more useful than an exhaustive report nobody will read.
What is a Postmortem?
A postmortem is a factual analysis of an incident: what happened, why, how it was resolved, and how to prevent recurrence. The goal isn't to blame but to improve processes.
Simple Postmortem Structure
- Summary: 2-3 sentences describing the incident, its impact, and duration.
- Timeline: Chronology of events: detection, actions, resolution.
- Root cause: The real cause, not just the symptom. Use the "5 Whys".
- Impact: Incident duration, affected users, losses (revenue, data).
- Corrective actions: Concrete list of improvements with owners and deadlines.
Best Practices
- Blameless: Don't look for a culprit. Human errors reveal process weaknesses.
- Factual: Stick to verifiable facts, not assumptions.
- Actionable: Every action must be concrete, assigned, and with a date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should you do a postmortem for every incident?
For significant incidents (> 5 min impact, data loss, human error). Minor incidents can be grouped.
Who should participate in the postmortem?
Everyone involved in the incident and resolution. More perspectives = better analysis.
How soon after the incident?
Ideally within 24-48h, when memories are fresh. Not during incident resolution.
How does MoniTao help with postmortems?
MoniTao provides uptime history and timestamped alerts. Factual data for the timeline.
Useful Links
Ready to Sleep Soundly?
Start free, no credit card required.