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Blameless Postmortem
Table of Contents
After rollback restores service, learn what broke in the system - not who to punish for pushing deploy.
Key Concept
Rollback Principle gets users back on the old build; blameless postmortem gets judgment back.
Same shape as Incident Investigation - trace system causes - but the culture rule is no scalpel hunts for a fall guy. Own the Error still means someone says “my call” in standup; the room fixes the runbook, not the person.
Examples
- Bad Friday deploy reverted by lunch - Monday postmortem traced the missing env var check, not which intern merged.
- After the equipment cart tipped twice we changed storage layout - debrief named the hazard, not “trainer was clumsy.”
Note Relationships
| Relationship | Wikilink | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| alternative | Rollback Principle | Rollback first; postmortem after calm - not root-cause while users are down |
| contradicts | Normalization of Deviance | when “nobody died” ends the conversation without a postmortem |
| extends | Convert Pain Into Learning | Postmortem is the scheduled convert step after harm |
| extends | Failure as Feedback | Miss becomes signal when nobody's hiding to keep their job |
| extends | Incident Investigation | Blameless tone keeps investigation on system causes |
| extends | Learning Organizations | “What broke” line stays until fixed or accepted |
| extends | Own the Error | Leader names the miss; room fixes the process, not the person |
