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Glite Dictionary
🩺 A body autopsy 📊 A review meeting
post-mortem examination

post-mortem examination

5.0
A careful review of a project or incident to learn what went wrong and improve
  • noun
  • /ˌpoʊstˈmɔrtəm ɪɡˈzæməˌneɪʃən/
  • Jargon
translation icon : análisis post-mortem
  • After the outage, the team conducted a post-mortem examination to identify what caused the failure.

Examples

  • Our engineering group ran a thorough post-mortem examination and produced recommendations to prevent recurrence.

  • The startup scheduled a post-mortem examination to learn from the product launch's unexpected problems.

  • The team conducted a thorough post-mortem examination after the project failed.

  • After the incident, a post-mortem examination was necessary.

  • After the outage, the team conducted a post-mortem examination to identify what caused the failure.

  • The startup scheduled a post-mortem examination to learn from the product launch's unexpected problems.

  • Our engineering group ran a thorough post-mortem examination to produce recommendations that could prevent future failures.

Synonyms

postmortem
vspost-mortem examination
  • Jargon
8 7.1

A discussion to find what went right or wrong after an event

focuses on formal cause analysis and recorded recommendations rather than just lessons
post-mortem
vspost-mortem examination
  • Jargon
3 6.5

A meeting after an event to find what went wrong and how to improve

is a formal review that finds causes, records details, and recommends fixes
post mortem
vspost-mortem examination
  • Jargon
1 6.0

A meeting after a project or event to discuss what went well and how to improve

is more formal and stresses cause finding, documenting, and formal recommendations

How Detailed

investigation
∞ 2.9
post-mortem examination
  • Jargon
5.0
to audit
  • Specialized
17 4.2
to debrief
  • Formal
21 6.1
review
5 1.9

Surface Forms

post-mortem examination singular
post-mortem examinations plural

Morphology

post-mortem + examination

The compound pairs 'post-mortem' (a Latin-derived term meaning literally 'after death') with 'examination' (detailed inspection), so a learner could infer an 'inspection after an event'. However, the specific figurative shift from autopsy to a retrospective project or incident review is culturally and register-dependent and relies on knowledge of the metaphorical use of 'post-mortem', so the meaning is not fully predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Post-mortem examination is also used for projects and problems; the parts post-mortem ('after death') and examination ('a careful look') give the idea. By comparison with doctors who look inside a body after death, teams 'look closely' at a finished or failed project to 'find what went wrong', so the phrase now means a formal review done after an event to learn and improve.