Process · General Industry
Pre-mortem
A structured exercise at the start of a project where the team imagines it has already failed and works backwards to list the causes. Produces a risk register that people are willing to say out loud.
- Also known as
- Premortem, Prospective hindsight
- Type
- Process
- Domain
- General Industry, Engineering culture
Notes
Pre-mortems work because it is socially easier to explain a hypothetical failure than to predict one in front of the sponsor.
Related terms
Part of the General Industry glossary, with every term in the topic and the lifecycles, tools and standards that use them.
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Last reviewed: not yet reviewed in depth. Entry last updated . The full glossary