Postmortem: Learning from Every Incident

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

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