Overview

A comprehensive framework for conducting post-incident analysis. This template provides a structured approach to document, analyze, and learn from service disruptions, outages, or other technical incidents that impact operations.

Key Components

• Incident Details: Document what happened, when, and why with a clear timeline of events
• Root Cause Analysis: Follow the "5 Whys" methodology to identify underlying issues
• Impact Assessment: Quantify user impact, business consequences, and duration
• Response Evaluation: Record detection, alerting, and mitigation efforts
• Action Items: Capture preventive measures with clear ownership and due dates

How to Use

1. Fill in each section promptly after resolving an incident
2. Be factual and avoid blame—focus on systems, not individuals
3. Include specific metrics where possible (response times, affected users)
4. Share with stakeholders to build transparency and foster a learning culture
5. Use the action items section to prevent similar incidents in the future

Problem-Solving Framework

SaaS Post-Mortem