Three Rules to Make Post-Mortems Actually Fix Problems, Not Just Document Them

Software engineer Dr. Samson Tanimawo argues that most post-mortems fail because action items lack ownership, deadlines, and follow-up, resulting in an industry-wide completion rate of just 30%. He proposes three core rules: limit action items to a maximum of three per incident, link each to a sprint ticket due within the next cycle, and open every future post-mortem by reviewing outstanding items from previous ones. Tanimawo also distinguishes between blameless culture and accountability, stressing that avoiding blame should not mean avoiding responsibility for fixes. He shares that applying these practices reduced his team's repeat incident rate from 45% to 12% over six months. A structured post-mortem template covering impact, timeline, root cause, contributing factors, and lessons learned is offered as a starting framework.