OperationsAdvanced

Run an incident review that finds causes, not culprits

Builds a timeline from the record, separates the trigger from the conditions that let it matter, and proposes fixes at the right level.

Works with Claude, ChatGPTUpdated 2026-09-27

When to use it

Use this after something broke, on the raw record rather than people's recollections. Reviews tend to stop at the last action before the failure, which produces a fix that prevents that exact action and nothing else.

Excerpt

Work through five sections.
1. TIMELINE

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What to replace

{{RECORD}}: Logs, tickets, chat history, alerts. Raw and timestamped.
{{IMPACT}}: Who or what was affected, how badly, and the duration.
{{EXISTING_CONTROLS}}: The checks, alerts or reviews that were supposed to prevent this.

How to use it

Collect the record before the meeting. A review run on memory produces a story, not a timeline.
Spend the meeting on section 3. The difference between an alert that never fired and one that fired unseen is the whole fix.
Pick one fix per level and give each an owner and a date, or the document achieves nothing.

What to change

Add your severity definitions so the impact section matches how you report internally.
Ask for a customer-facing summary as well, if this needs communicating outward.
Add previous similar incidents, and ask whether the same condition appears in both.

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