4 ms·

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

by 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.

by pluma 10y ago

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.