Outage Postmortem Markdown Template

gistfile1.txt

# IT Outage Postmortem

## Report by:
> Name, Job Title, Team Name
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## What Happened
> TL;DR summary of the incident
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## Impact Summary
> Duration: (Ex. 2h 14m)  
> Affected Services: (Ex. Public website, API gateway...etc)  
> User Impact: (Ex. 503 errors for 18% of traffic during outage window)  
> Customer-Facing? Yes/No ???  

## Timeline
- `12:03 AM` - Monitoring alert triggered
- `12:10 AM` - Initial triage began
- ...

## Root Cause
> What actually broke?
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## Contributing Factors
> Were there other issues that made this worse?  
> (Ex. Missing alert, wrong runbook, undertrained staff, legacy system quirks)
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## (Optional) SLA (Service Level Agreement) Impact
> Outage was / was not within defined SLA window - Explain
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## (Optional) Compliance Framework Implications (If any)
> What framework violation occured? (Ex. HIPAA control XYZ)
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## Security Related Incident?
> Yes or No? Explain
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## Fix Implemented
> What was done to resolve the issue?
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

- [ ] Temporary workaround
- [ ] Permanent fix deployed
- [ ] Follow-up change(s) scheduled

> If follow-ups are scheduled what are they? And When?
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## Lessons Learned

### Monitoring
- [ ] Alert triggered appropriately?
- [ ] Escalation procedures effective?

### Communication
- [ ] Stakeholders notified in time?
- [ ] Response team aligned?

### Documentation
- [ ] Runbook useful?
- [ ] Diagrams or workflows outdated?

### Process / Human Factors
- [ ] Better onboarding or training needed?
- [ ] Were roles clearly defined?

> Add any additional insights below:
>
> -INSERT RESPONSE-

## Action Items

| Owner | Task | Due Date | Status |
|-------|------|----------|--------|
| Alice | Patch server config | 2025-07-20 | ☐  
| Bob   | Update internal docs | 2025-07-21 | ☐  
| Carol | Run RCA review | 2025-07-25 | ☐