- Time
- Empty
- What happened
- Incident started
- Who
- Empty
- Check
- Unchecked
TemplatesWork & projects · Incident postmortem
Incident postmortem
When a service outage or operational incident is over and you write up the timeline, causes and prevention steps without blaming anyone
What's inside · Table 3 · Checklist 3
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Incident postmortem
- Incident date
- Not set
- Impact duration (minutes)
- Not set
- Assignee
- Not set
- Severity
- Not set
Write the three summary lines, then fill in the timeline table with the actual times.
Summary
1.
What happened?
2.
Who was affected, and how?
3.
What's the status now?
Timeline
| Time | What happened | WhoAssignee | CheckCheckbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty | Incident started | Empty | Unchecked |
| Empty | Detected | Empty | Unchecked |
| Empty | Response started | Empty | Unchecked |
| Empty | Recovered | Empty | Unchecked |
| Empty | Notice | Empty | Unchecked |
- Time
- Empty
- What happened
- Detected
- Who
- Empty
- Check
- Unchecked
- Time
- Empty
- What happened
- Response started
- Who
- Empty
- Check
- Unchecked
- Time
- Empty
- What happened
- Recovered
- Who
- Empty
- Check
- Unchecked
- Time
- Empty
- What happened
- Notice
- Who
- Empty
- Check
- Unchecked
Causes
Separate the causes you could see from the root cause.
| Causes | TypeLabels | Root causeCheckbox |
|---|---|---|
| Empty | Configuration | Unchecked |
| Empty | Process | Unchecked |
| Empty | Code | Unchecked |
- Causes
- Empty
- Type
- Configuration
- Root cause
- Unchecked
- Causes
- Empty
- Type
- Process
- Root cause
- Unchecked
- Causes
- Empty
- Type
- Code
- Root cause
- Unchecked
Prevention actions
Prevention actions
| Action | Assignee | Due date | Priority | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add a detection alert | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set |
| Document the recovery procedure | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set |
| Create a review process for config changes | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set |
- Assignee
- Not set
- Due date
- Not set
- Priority
- Not set
- Status
- Not set
- Notes
- Not set
- Assignee
- Not set
- Due date
- Not set
- Priority
- Not set
- Status
- Not set
- Notes
- Not set
- Assignee
- Not set
- Due date
- Not set
- Priority
- Not set
- Status
- Not set
- Notes
- Not set
Rules
Don't blame people. Fix the processes and systems.
☐
Filled in the timeline.
☐
Marked the root cause.
☐
Set an owner and a due date for every action.