Postmortem Action Prioritizer
Prioritize incident postmortem action items using impact vs effort analysis. Enter values for instant results with step-by-step formulas.
Worked Examples
Example 1: Database Outage
Problem:2-hour database failure. 8,000 customers affected, $50,000 revenue lost. 6 action items identified.
Solution:Quick wins: Add query monitoring (impact 7, effort 3). Major: Implement automated failover (impact 10, effort 13). Prioritize monitoring first for fast win.
Result:6 actions prioritized | 2 quick wins | 1 major project | 45 dev-days total
Example 2: API Rate Limit Incident
Problem:30-min API unavailability due to rate limit. 500 users affected, $2,000 impact. 4 actions.
Solution:Top priority: Rate limit monitoring (impact 9, effort 2, 3 days). Also: Better error messages (impact 6, effort 3). Skip expensive API redesign (impact 5, effort 20).
Result:4 actions | Focus on monitoring | Skip low-ROI redesign | 15 dev-days
Example 3: Deployment Gone Wrong
Problem:Bad deploy took down site for 45 min. 12,000 users affected. 8 proposed actions.
Solution:Too many actions (8). Consolidate to: Enhanced deployment gates (impact 9, effort 5), Rollback automation (impact 10, effort 8), Canary deployment (impact 8, effort 13).
Result:8 → 3 focused actions | Top 3 address root causes | 26 dev-days
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a postmortem?
A postmortem (or post-incident review) is a blameless analysis conducted after an outage or incident. It documents what happened, why, and what actions will prevent recurrence. Blameless culture enables honest learning.
How do I prioritize postmortem action items?
Use impact (how much does this reduce future risk?) vs. effort (how hard to implement?). High impact, low effort are quick wins. High impact, high effort need planning. Low impact items may not be worth doing.
What's a reasonable number of action items?
3-7 actionable items per postmortem. More than 10 suggests too little prioritization—most won't get done. Focus on high-impact items that actually get implemented.
Should every postmortem have action items?
Not necessarily. If existing defenses worked or the incident was truly unforeseeable, acknowledge it. Manufacturing action items creates busy work. Sometimes the lesson is 'our systems worked as designed.'