When should post-mortems be concluded? Post-Mortems Best Practices 🛰️

As an experienced manager in software engineering, you're likely familiar with the practice of conducting post-mortems after major incidents or downtimes. But, have you considered the importance of post-mortems for hotfixes, especially those addressing production bugs? This is an area that can significantly contribute to the culture of continuous improvement within agile teams.

Why Hotfix Post-Mortems Matter

Often, hotfixes are treated as quick, reactive measures to immediate problems, particularly in the fast-paced environment of agile teams. However, they can reveal deeper systemic issues or opportunities for process refinement. By extending post-mortems to include hotfixes, teams can:

• Uncover and address root causes, not just symptoms.
• Improve cross-functional collaboration and understanding.
• Anticipate and mitigate future risks.
• Provide clarity and reassurance to stakeholders.

When to Conduct a Post-Mortem: A Simple Guide

1. Recurring Potential: If there's a likelihood of the issue reoccurring, it’s crucial to understand why and how to prevent it.
2. Cross-Team Involvement: When multiple teams collaborate on a fix, a post-mortem can help in aligning understanding and approach.
3. Risk of Future Issues: If the resolution introduces new risks, it’s important to document these and plan for future mitigation.
4. Stakeholder Communication: Situations where business stakeholders require reassurances or explanations are prime for post-mortems.

For example, a hotfix for a frontend issue affecting the login flow is an excellent candidate for a post-mortem, as it likely touches on several of these points.

How to Conduct a Lightweight, Agile Post-Mortem

1. Initiate a Discussion: Start a conversation in a common channel, like Slack, involving all stakeholders.
2. Focus on Actionable Insights: The goal is to extract lessons that can prevent future issues or improve response times.
3. Document and Share Findings: Ensure that the insights and action plans are accessible to all relevant parties.
4. Encourage a Blame-free Culture: Focus on learning and improvement, not on assigning blame.

Conclusion

Incorporating post-mortems for hotfixes in agile environments is not about bureaucracy; it's about fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. By recognizing the value of these reflective practices, software engineering managers can lead their teams to greater resilience and effectiveness.

Remember, the goal is to build a more robust, responsive, and agile team. Embracing post-mortems for all kinds of fixes, not just major downtimes, is a step in that direction.

🛰️ Post-mortems (or at least some kind of it) should be done for hotfixes (production bugs), not only for downtimes/incidents. Do you agree? pic.twitter.com/j9nwcMNXVK

— George Sifalda (@JSifalda) January 13, 2024