5 ms·

That's a retrospective -- a post mortem usually refers to talking about an incident where something went catastrophically wrong.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
I think Agile has already hijacked the word "retrospective" to mean something else - a meeting, not a publication. For better or worse, that's how the word "postmortem" is used in some corners of programming world. I've become familiar with it in gamedev circles, something like 10 to 15 years ago.
- SolaceQuantum 10y ago
  I'm surprised at this length of thread within a tech context. I believe a similar thread occurred, but with context of scriptwriting, just a day or three ago. That conversation was all about how scriptwriting isn't reasonable or sensible enough and how things should be changed...
pluma 10y ago
It seems to be a standard term in game development at least: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/postmortem/ http://www.gamasutra.com/features/postmortem/ You're right that in our corner of the industry it typically refers to particular incidents, though. It seems pointless to argue which one is more correct, though. For the record, here's Wikipedia's take: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation Key quote: > A project post-mortem is a process, usually performed at the conclusion of a project, to determine and analyze elements of the project that were successful or unsuccessful. (emphasis added)
- modzu 10y ago
  as "mortem" means death (from the latin "mors"), that is why it's typically used to signal an analysis of a failure, ie, the project is "dead". ah but language evolves in a chaotic way... see also the new definition of "literally"
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    True. On the other hand, I could care less. https://xkcd.com/1576/ https://xkcd.com/1576/ (see also https://xkcd.com/1108/ https://xkcd.com/1108/) ;).
    - pluma 10y ago
      No, "I could care less" is never acceptable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
  - pluma 10y ago
    Sure, but traditionally in many parts of the industry projects have a limited lifetime and the release is generally the end (i.e. death) of the project. This is especially true in the games industry where until MMOs, DLC and perpetual "early access" came along most projects wouldn't outlive the release date except maybe for a very short support phase. So it's less about language evolution than about different connotations of the word "death". The end of a project is its natural death, the failure of a project is a premature death. Using the term postmortem for an end-of-life retrospective may seem morbid, but it's no more inaccurate than using it for an incident debrief -- because if you want to be that pedantic, a failure that doesn't result in the end of a project is not a "death" either.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

I think Agile has already hijacked the word "retrospective" to mean something else - a meeting, not a publication. For better or worse, that's how the word "postmortem" is used in some corners of programming world. I've become familiar with it in gamedev circles, something like 10 to 15 years ago.

SolaceQuantum 10y ago
I'm surprised at this length of thread within a tech context. I believe a similar thread occurred, but with context of scriptwriting, just a day or three ago. That conversation was all about how scriptwriting isn't reasonable or sensible enough and how things should be changed...

pluma 10y ago

It seems to be a standard term in game development at least: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/postmortem/ http://www.gamasutra.com/features/postmortem/ You're right that in our corner of the industry it typically refers to particular incidents, though. It seems pointless to argue which one is more correct, though. For the record, here's Wikipedia's take: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation Key quote: > A project post-mortem is a process, usually performed at the conclusion of a project, to determine and analyze elements of the project that were successful or unsuccessful. (emphasis added)

modzu 10y ago
as "mortem" means death (from the latin "mors"), that is why it's typically used to signal an analysis of a failure, ie, the project is "dead". ah but language evolves in a chaotic way... see also the new definition of "literally"
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  True. On the other hand, I could care less. https://xkcd.com/1576/ https://xkcd.com/1576/ (see also https://xkcd.com/1108/ https://xkcd.com/1108/) ;).
  - pluma 10y ago
    No, "I could care less" is never acceptable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
- pluma 10y ago
  Sure, but traditionally in many parts of the industry projects have a limited lifetime and the release is generally the end (i.e. death) of the project. This is especially true in the games industry where until MMOs, DLC and perpetual "early access" came along most projects wouldn't outlive the release date except maybe for a very short support phase. So it's less about language evolution than about different connotations of the word "death". The end of a project is its natural death, the failure of a project is a premature death. Using the term postmortem for an end-of-life retrospective may seem morbid, but it's no more inaccurate than using it for an incident debrief -- because if you want to be that pedantic, a failure that doesn't result in the end of a project is not a "death" either.