Postmortem Process

Contents

• Overview
• Objectives
• Entry Conditions
• Exit Conditions
• Tasks

Overview

A project postmortem is an activity requiring developers to reflect on the activities of the now completed project. The idea is to provide developers with the opportunity to think on what things went well, and perhaps not so well. Some authors describe postmortems as one possible avenue for improvement because identifying what needs to be fixed is certainly a preliminary stage to fixing it. Postmortems offer just that advantage. The activity provides the participant with the opportunity to state how things should work and to plan actions to accomplish those goals.

For our purposes, postmortems are intended as learning opportunities. You are asked to write about your development activities, collect, data, set goals. All this information is collected for your use. The information is not graded in any real sense. The instrutor does read over the material to help insure that the activity is taken seriously, but it is not graded in the usual sense of the word.

Objectives

The objectives of the postmortem activity are to:

• Provide an environment which supports openness and constructive criticism.
• Provide an environment which encourages improvement.
• Provide a process that makes the results of the development effort evident.
• Provide a means that encourages students to share lessons learned.
• Provide an environment which supports easy collection and archival of information.
• Provide a process that links the development activities to future projects.

Entry Conditions

The postmortem can begin when:

• The source code and associated documentation is ready for submission.

Exit Conditions

The postmortem is complete when:

• Data required for each task has been recorded.

• Personal goals for the next project have been defined.

Tasks

1. If project number greater 1, review personal goals from prior postmortem.

2. Complete the postmortem personal development survey.

3. Read (or review) issues of measurement and types of measures.

4. Collect measures for the project submission and record in the design notebook.

5. Define personal goals for next development activity.