The Postmortem Template, 2026

Postmortem templates rot. The 2026 update with sections that drive action.

Sections

1. Summary. 2. Timeline. 3. Customer impact.

4. Contributing factors. 5. Resolution.

6. Lessons learned. 7. Action items.

Sections to drop

'Root cause' singular. Most incidents have multiple contributing factors.

'What went well.' Slipped into hagiography in too many postmortems.

Sections to add

'What we got lucky on.' The not-so-good cases that did not break.

'Open questions.' Not everything resolves at PM time.