Post-mortem

Post-mortem

Noun & adjective · /ˌpəʊst ˈmɔːtəm/ · an examination or analysis conducted after an event or death

Definition

Post-mortem has two major senses. In medicine, it is the examination of a corpse to determine the cause of death — also called an autopsy. In professional life, especially in technology and project management, it is a structured review conducted after an event to understand what happened, why it happened, and how to improve. Both senses share the same Latin root: after death.

Origin

Directly from Latin: post (after) + mortem, the accusative form of mors (death). Entered English in the early 19th century as a medical term. The professional use — a review after the end of something — expanded strongly in the 20th century. In software engineering and DevOps, the incident post-mortem is now a standard practice, used after every significant outage or failure.