Postmortem Incident Analysis: Preventing Future Incidents

Preventing Future Incidents

Question

You are writing a postmortem for an incident that severely affected users.

You want to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Which two of the following sections should you include in the postmortem? (Choose two.)

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D. E.

AB.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/fearless-shared-postmortems-cre-life-lessons

When writing a postmortem for an incident that significantly impacted users, it is important to include sections that explain the root cause of the incident and provide actionable steps to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. These two sections are A and C.

A. An explanation of the root cause of the incident: This section should provide a detailed description of the factors that led to the incident, including any technical, procedural, or human errors that contributed to the incident. It is essential to identify the root cause of the incident, as it allows the team to understand what went wrong and how to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

C. A list of action items to prevent a recurrence of the incident: This section should include a detailed list of specific actions that the team will take to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. This can include changes to processes, procedures, and systems, as well as training and education for team members. The action items should be prioritized based on their potential impact and should be assigned to specific team members responsible for their implementation.

B. A list of employees responsible for causing the incident: This section is not appropriate for a postmortem, as it can create a culture of blame and discourage individuals from reporting incidents in the future. Instead, the focus should be on understanding the factors that led to the incident and preventing similar incidents from occurring in the future.

D. Your opinion of the incident's severity compared to past incidents: This section is not necessary for a postmortem, as it does not provide actionable steps to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

E. Copies of the design documents for all the services impacted by the incident: This section may be helpful for providing context and understanding of the incident but is not necessary for preventing similar incidents in the future. Instead, the focus should be on identifying the root cause of the incident and taking actionable steps to prevent it from happening again.