Reliability, security & resilience · Core
Postmortem
Also called: incident review
ELI5
A review of what happened and how to prevent recurrence.
Used in conversation
“The postmortem focuses on system conditions, not individual blame.”
Definition
A structured review after an incident to understand causes, impact and improvements, ideally without scapegoating.
Here “Postmortem” means: A structured review after an incident to understand causes, impact and improvements, ideally without scapegoating.
Pitch context
You will see “Postmortem” in product strategy decks, roadmaps, experiments and architecture reviews when the discussion reaches reliability, security & resilience.
Why it matters: In reliability, security & resilience, the scope can change what data may be used, who may access it and which controls are required.
Sources & evidence · 2
Direct term-level sources and supporting source families.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology — Computer Security Resource Center GlossaryDirect source · primary · checked 2026-08-16
- Scrum Guides — The Scrum Guide — official current versionSupporting source family · primary · checked 2026-08-16