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Incident Postmortem Template

Document Information

Incident ID: [Unique incident identifier]
Date of Incident: [When the incident occurred]
Postmortem Date: [When this analysis was conducted]
Facilitator: [Person leading the postmortem]
Participants: [List of all participants in the analysis]
Status: [Draft/Under Review/Final/Approved]

Executive Summary

[Provide a high-level overview of the incident, its impact, root cause, and key action items]

Incident Overview

Duration: [Total incident duration]
Severity: [Critical/High/Medium/Low]
Services Affected: [List of affected services]
Users Impacted: [Number and type of users affected]
Business Impact: [Financial, operational, or reputational impact]

Key Outcomes

Root Cause: [Primary root cause identified]
Resolution: [How the incident was resolved]
Prevention: [Key prevention measures identified]
Lessons Learned: [Most important insights gained]

Incident Timeline

Detection and Response Timeline

Time (UTC)	Event	Actor	Action Taken
[Timestamp]	[Event description]	[Person/System]	[Action description]
[Timestamp]	[Event description]	[Person/System]	[Action description]
[Timestamp]	[Event description]	[Person/System]	[Action description]

Key Milestones

Incident Start: [When the incident actually began]
First Detection: [When the incident was first detected]
Escalation: [When incident was escalated to appropriate teams]
Mitigation Started: [When mitigation efforts began]
Service Restored: [When service was restored to users]
Incident Closed: [When incident was officially closed]

Impact Analysis

Service Impact

Affected Services:

[Service 1]: [Description of impact and duration]
[Service 2]: [Description of impact and duration]
[Service 3]: [Description of impact and duration]

Performance Degradation:

Response Time: [Impact on response times]
Throughput: [Impact on system throughput]
Error Rate: [Increase in error rates]
Availability: [Service availability percentage]

User Impact

User Experience:

[Description of how users were affected]
[Specific user journeys or features impacted]
[User-reported issues and complaints]
[Customer support ticket volume and themes]

Business Impact:

Revenue Impact: [Estimated financial impact]
Customer Impact: [Number of customers affected]
Reputation Impact: [Brand or reputation implications]
Compliance Impact: [Regulatory or compliance implications]

Geographic and Demographic Impact

[Regional distribution of impact]
[User segment analysis]
[Peak usage time considerations]
[Mobile vs. desktop impact differences]

Root Cause Analysis

Primary Root Cause

Root Cause Statement: [Clear, concise statement of the fundamental cause]

Technical Details:

[Detailed technical explanation of the root cause]
[System components and interactions involved]
[Failure modes and error conditions]
[Code, configuration, or infrastructure issues]

Evidence Supporting Root Cause:

[Log entries and error messages]
[Performance metrics and monitoring data]
[Test results and reproduction steps]
[Expert analysis and validation]

Contributing Factors

Factor 1: [Contributing factor name]

Description: [How this factor contributed to the incident]
Category: [Technical/Process/Human/External]
Severity: [High/Medium/Low contribution]
Evidence: [Supporting evidence for this factor]

Factor 2: [Contributing factor name]

Description: [How this factor contributed to the incident]
Category: [Technical/Process/Human/External]
Severity: [High/Medium/Low contribution]
Evidence: [Supporting evidence for this factor]

What Went Wrong

Technical Failures:

[System or component failures that occurred]
[Design limitations or architectural issues]
[Configuration errors or misconfigurations]
[Code defects or logic errors]

Process Failures:

[Monitoring and alerting gaps]
[Incident response procedure issues]
[Change management process failures]
[Communication and escalation problems]

Human Factors:

[Knowledge gaps or training issues]
[Decision-making errors or delays]
[Communication breakdowns]
[Workload or stress-related factors]

What Went Well

Effective Response Actions

Detection and Alerting:

[Monitoring systems that worked effectively]
[Alert configurations that provided timely notification]
[Team members who quickly identified the issue]
[Escalation procedures that functioned properly]

Incident Response:

[Effective troubleshooting and diagnostic actions]
[Successful mitigation and workaround strategies]
[Good communication and coordination efforts]
[Proper use of incident response procedures]

Recovery and Resolution:

[Effective resolution strategies and implementations]
[Successful service restoration procedures]
[Good post-incident validation and monitoring]
[Appropriate stakeholder communication]

System Resilience

Protective Measures:

[Failover mechanisms that worked correctly]
[Circuit breakers or rate limiting that prevented worse impact]
[Backup systems or redundancy that helped]
[Monitoring and observability that aided diagnosis]

Lessons Learned

Technical Lessons

Architecture and Design:

[Insights about system architecture and design]
[Understanding of failure modes and resilience]
[Performance and scalability considerations]
[Security and compliance implications]

Implementation and Operations:

[Code quality and testing insights]
[Deployment and configuration learnings]
[Monitoring and observability improvements]
[Maintenance and operational considerations]

Process Lessons

Incident Management:

[Incident response procedure effectiveness]
[Communication and escalation improvements]
[Decision-making and authority clarifications]
[Documentation and knowledge sharing insights]

Development and Operations:

[Change management process improvements]
[Testing and quality assurance enhancements]
[Deployment and release procedure updates]
[Capacity planning and resource management]

Organizational Lessons

Team and Communication:

[Cross-team collaboration insights]
[Communication channel and tool effectiveness]
[Training and skill development needs]
[Leadership and decision-making improvements]

Culture and Practices:

[Blameless postmortem culture reinforcement]
[Continuous improvement mindset development]
[Risk management and prevention focus]
[Learning and knowledge sharing enhancement]

Action Items

Immediate Actions (0-7 days)

Action	Owner	Due Date	Priority	Status
[Action description]	[Person/Team]	[Date]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Not Started/In Progress/Complete]
[Action description]	[Person/Team]	[Date]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Not Started/In Progress/Complete]

Short-term Actions (1-4 weeks)

Action	Owner	Due Date	Priority	Status
[Action description]	[Person/Team]	[Date]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Not Started/In Progress/Complete]
[Action description]	[Person/Team]	[Date]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Not Started/In Progress/Complete]

Long-term Actions (1-6 months)

Action	Owner	Due Date	Priority	Status
[Action description]	[Person/Team]	[Date]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Not Started/In Progress/Complete]
[Action description]	[Person/Team]	[Date]	[High/Medium/Low]	[Not Started/In Progress/Complete]

Prevention Actions

Monitoring and Alerting:

[Enhanced monitoring and alerting implementations]
[New metrics and threshold configurations]
[Dashboard and visualization improvements]
[Automated health check and validation systems]

System Improvements:

[Architecture and design enhancements]
[Code quality and testing improvements]
[Performance and scalability optimizations]
[Security and compliance strengthening]

Process Improvements:

[Incident response procedure updates]
[Change management process enhancements]
[Testing and quality assurance improvements]
[Documentation and knowledge sharing systems]

Follow-up and Tracking

Action Item Tracking

Review Schedule:

[Weekly review meetings for immediate actions]
[Bi-weekly review meetings for short-term actions]
[Monthly review meetings for long-term actions]
[Quarterly assessment of overall progress]

Success Metrics:

[Metrics to measure action item effectiveness]
[Key performance indicators for improvement]
[Incident recurrence prevention measures]
[System reliability and performance improvements]

Documentation Updates:

[Runbook and procedure updates]
[Knowledge base article creation]
[Training material development]
[Best practice documentation]

Team Communication:

[Team briefings and knowledge transfer sessions]
[Cross-team sharing and collaboration]
[Executive and stakeholder updates]
[Customer communication and transparency]

Appendices

Appendix A: Technical Details

[Detailed technical information, logs, stack traces, etc.]

Appendix B: Communication Records

[Incident communication timeline, stakeholder updates, etc.]

Appendix C: Monitoring Data

[Charts, graphs, metrics, and performance data]

[Links to related incidents, procedures, and documentation]

Document Control:

Version: [Version number]
Last Updated: [Update date]
Next Review: [Scheduled review date]
Approval: [Approver name and date]

Distribution:

[List of recipients and stakeholders]

Confidentiality: [Internal/Confidential/Public classification]

Remember: This postmortem should focus on learning and improvement rather than blame. The goal is to prevent similar incidents and improve overall system reliability and team effectiveness.

10 KiB Raw Blame History