Project Post-Mortem Template

PROJECT POST-MORTEM: [Project/Incident Name]
DATE: [Date]
LEAD: [Name]

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
[2-3 sentences summarizing what the project was, when it launched, and the overall outcome.]

2. WHAT WENT WELL (Successes)
- [Win 1: e.g., The marketing team delivered all assets 3 days ahead of schedule, allowing for buffer room.]
- [Win 2: e.g., We stayed 15% under budget.]

3. WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL (Failures/Misses)
- [Miss 1: e.g., The QA process failed to catch the mobile layout bug, resulting in a hotfix post-launch.]
- [Miss 2: e.g., Scope creep during week 3 delayed the timeline by 4 days.]

4. ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS (The "5 Whys")
[Pick the biggest failure and ask Why 5 times to find the root cause]
- Problem: The mobile bug made it to production.
- Why? QA only tested on desktop browsers.
- Why? They didn't have mobile devices provisioned.
- Why? We didn't include mobile testing hardware in the quarterly budget.

5. LESSONS LEARNED & ACTION ITEMS
What definitive process changes are we making so this never happens again?
1. [Action Item]: Add a mandatory mobile screen-size check to the automated pre-deployment CI/CD pipeline. Owner: [Name]. Deadline: [Date].
2. [Action Item]: Institute a hard "code freeze" 48 hours before launch to prevent scope creep. Owner: [Name]. Deadline: [Date].

💡 Pro Tip

Post-mortems must be completely blameless. The overarching philosophy should be: bad processes cause failures, not bad people. Focus entirely on fixing the system.

📌 When to Use This Template

Project Management, Software Engineering, Operations

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