Project Post-Mortem Markdown Template

Review a completed project against its plan using evidence, impact, contributing factors, lessons, and owned follow-up actions.

Markdown

# Project Post-Mortem: [Project Name]

**Review date:** YYYY-MM-DD

**Project period:** [Start] to [End]

**Facilitator:** [Name]

**Participants:** [Names or roles]

> This template reviews project delivery. Use a dedicated incident-review format for outages or operational incidents.

## Project objective and scope

[State the approved objective, intended users, and in-scope deliverables.]

## Expected versus actual

| Dimension | Expected | Actual | Evidence |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Outcome | [Target] | [Observed result] | [Link or source] |
| Scope | [Committed scope] | [Delivered scope] | [Link or source] |
| Schedule | [Planned milestone] | [Actual milestone] | [Link or source] |
| Cost or effort | [Estimate] | [Actual] | [Link or source] |

## Timeline and evidence

| Date | Event or decision | Evidence | Effect |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| YYYY-MM-DD | [What happened] | [Document, metric, or record] | [Effect on delivery] |

## Impact

- **Users or stakeholders:** [Observed impact]
- **Team:** [Observed impact]
- **Cost, schedule, or quality:** [Observed impact]

## What helped

- [Practice or condition, with evidence]

## What hindered

- [Practice or condition, with evidence]

## Contributing factors

- **Planning:** [Factor]
- **Dependencies:** [Factor]
- **Execution or process:** [Factor]
- **External conditions:** [Factor]

## Lessons

- [Lesson connected to evidence and a future decision]

## Follow-up actions

| Action | Owner | Due | Status | Success check |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| [Specific action] | [Name or role] | YYYY-MM-DD | Not started | [How completion will be verified] |

## Open questions

- [Question requiring follow-up]

Preview

Project Post-Mortem: [Project Name]

Review date: YYYY-MM-DD

Project period: [Start] to [End]

Facilitator: [Name]

Participants: [Names or roles]

This template reviews project delivery. Use a dedicated incident-review format for outages or operational incidents.

Project objective and scope

[State the approved objective, intended users, and in-scope deliverables.]

Expected versus actual

Dimension	Expected	Actual	Evidence
Outcome	[Target]	[Observed result]	[Link or source]
Scope	[Committed scope]	[Delivered scope]	[Link or source]
Schedule	[Planned milestone]	[Actual milestone]	[Link or source]
Cost or effort	[Estimate]	[Actual]	[Link or source]

Timeline and evidence

Date	Event or decision	Evidence	Effect
YYYY-MM-DD	[What happened]	[Document, metric, or record]	[Effect on delivery]

Impact

Users or stakeholders: [Observed impact]
Team: [Observed impact]
Cost, schedule, or quality: [Observed impact]

What helped

[Practice or condition, with evidence]

What hindered

[Practice or condition, with evidence]

Contributing factors

Planning: [Factor]
Dependencies: [Factor]
Execution or process: [Factor]
External conditions: [Factor]

Lessons

[Lesson connected to evidence and a future decision]

Follow-up actions

Action	Owner	Due	Status	Success check
[Specific action]	[Name or role]	YYYY-MM-DD	Not started	[How completion will be verified]

Open questions

[Question requiring follow-up]

When to use this template

Use this after a project, launch, or major phase to compare delivery with the original plan. For an outage or operational failure, use your team's incident-review process instead.

Section guide

Expected versus actual: Anchor the review in the approved scope, schedule, cost, and outcomes.
Timeline and evidence: Separate observed events and sources from interpretation.
Actions: Turn lessons into owned, dated, trackable work.

How to use this template

1
Copy the Markdown
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2
Paste into your editor
Paste into the mdkit editor, a repository, a notes app, or another Markdown editor. Check tables and task lists in your target renderer because Markdown support varies.
3
Fill in your content
Replace bracketed examples with verified information, adapt fields to your context, and remove sections that do not apply.
4
Export or share
Review sensitive information, links, facts, and formatting. Then commit to Git, share the Markdown, or export to HTML or PDF.

Check before you use it

This is a project review, not a substitute for an incident report, safety investigation, or regulatory process.
Protect confidential, personal, and security-sensitive evidence before sharing.

Template details

What it solves

Teams can compare a project's planned and actual delivery without reducing the review to vague wins, failures, or blame.

Key features

Expected-versus-actual outcome table
Evidence-linked project timeline
Impact and contributing-factor analysis
Action table with owner, due date, and status

Pro tips

>Invite perspectives from delivery partners and affected stakeholders.
>Describe contributing conditions rather than assigning personal blame.
>Review open actions later; the document alone does not create improvement.

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