# Pre-mortem

Run this before the decision is committed. State the plan, assume it has already failed a year from now, write reasons alone, then pool and rank them and give the top reasons a warning sign, an owner, and a check date.

## Decision

[The plan being tested, in one sentence, and the date it will be committed]

## Imagined failure

It is a year from now. We went ahead, and it failed. [What failure looks like, stated concretely: a number missed, a customer lost, a date slipped]

## Failure reasons

Copy this block once for each ranked reason.

### Reason ID: R-01

**Failure reason:** [One plausible reason it failed]

**Rank:** [Position by likelihood and damage, such as 1 of 11]

**Early warning sign:** [The first observable signal that this is starting to happen]

**Mitigation:** [What changes in the plan now, or what you will do if the sign appears]

**Owner:** [The person who watches the sign and acts on it]

**Check date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]

**Result at check:** [Filled on the check date: no sign, sign seen and handled, or failure under way]

### Reason ID: R-02

**Failure reason:** []

**Rank:** []

**Early warning sign:** []

**Mitigation:** []

**Owner:** []

**Check date:** []

**Result at check:** []