CF Dictionary A reference for Critical Fallibilism

CF Dictionary · Error Correction & Learning

Postmortem

A review of a failed project to find its errors and prevent their recurrence. CF treats postmortems as central to learning.

A postmortem is a structured review of a failed or completed project, looking for errors and their causes. CF treats postmortems as one of the most powerful error-correction tools.

Why postmortems matter

When something goes wrong, the natural reaction is to move on. CF says that's exactly the wrong move:

  • Errors are still in your mental models. Without a postmortem, you'll repeat the mistake.
  • Others can learn from your mistakes. A good postmortem spreads the lesson.
  • Causes are often deep. Surface fixes don't address root causes.

A CF-style postmortem

  1. State the failure. What went wrong, exactly?
  2. List the goals. What were you trying to do?
  3. Brainstorm causes. Many possibilities, no filtering yet.
  4. Criticise the list. Which causes are decisive?
  5. Identify root causes. Why did those causes exist?
  6. Propose changes. What would prevent recurrence?
  7. Apply those changes.

Anti-patterns

  • Blaming people. Criticise ideas, not people.
  • Surface-only fixes. "Be more careful next time" is rarely the root cause.
  • Skipping the postmortem. Because of social discomfort.

"Postmortems Help Address Causes of Errors." — criticalfallibilism.com