Free Project Post-Mortem Templates

By Kate Eby | June 24, 2020

The project retrospective or post-mortem process offers a vital opportunity for team learning and improvement. Below you’ll find free, customizable post-mortem templates for your next project.

Included on this page, you’ll find a post-mortem checklist, post-mortem survey template, a pre-mortem template, and an example report template.

Post-Mortem Project Review Template

Project Postmortem Report Template

Use this project post-mortem analysis template to create a comprehensive report, including a project overview, highlights of what went well, challenges, and detailed descriptions of lessons learned. Download the template as an Excel, Word, or PDF file, and edit the text to suit your specific project. This post-mortem template can be used for single projects or ongoing reviews in any industry from construction to healthcare.

Download Post-Mortem Project Review Template

Word | PDF

Project Post-Mortem Meeting Agenda Template

Project Postmortem Meeting Agenda Template

Simplify post-mortem meetings with this agenda template, which provides a basic outline to help you plan talking points and facilitate a constructive meeting. Planning the post-mortem agenda in advance helps the moderator keep the meeting brief while setting a positive tone. Share the agenda with attendees, along with ground rules for participation.  

Download Post-Mortem Meeting Agenda Template

Excel | Word | PDF

 

You can find a meeting notes template, designed specifically for documenting the results of a blameless post-mortem, in this essential guide to blameless post-mortems. You can also learn how to get the most out of post-mortems so you can make lasting changes in your business processes from our article on how to run post-mortem meetings

Project Post-Mortem Survey Template

Project Postmortem Survey Template

Before a post-mortem meeting, ask team members to complete a brief questionnaire to get feedback on what they view as the challenges and successes of the project. What went well? What went poorly? What could we do differently next time? Use the survey answers to inform your team discussion during the meeting. Asking post-mortem questions in advance saves time and provides valuable information on how the team worked together, and what changes to implement in future projects.

Download Project Post-Mortem Survey Template

Excel | Word | PDF | Smartsheet

Pre-Mortem Analysis Template

Premortem Analysis Template

A pre-mortem analysis involves imagining how a project might fail in order to anticipate risks and avoid potential issues. While a post-mortem allows you to learn from mistakes, a premortem increases your chances of avoiding them when you start a project. This template can be used for small or large projects, and also includes a chart for creating an action plan to mitigate risks.

Download Pre-Mortem Analysis Template — Excel

Project Post-Mortem Report Example

Project Postmortem Report Example

This project post-mortem example offers a completed report that illustrates how one might utilize the template. Create your own thorough project review by examining quantitative measures of success, along with team members’ subjective experiences. The template is simple to edit, so you can tailor the post-mortem report to your business, team, and project needs. Share the finished report internally to encourage a culture of continuous improvement.

Download Project Post-Mortem Report Example

Word | PDF

Project Post-Mortem PowerPoint Template

Project Postmortem Template

Create a post-mortem presentation to share with your organization. Add your content to each PowerPoint slide to demonstrate project performance against original goals, scheduling, cost limits, and planning. Include metrics for measuring project success, and be sure to highlight key wins along with challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations for future projects. 

Download Project Post-Mortem Template — PowerPoint

Software Project Post-Mortem Template

Software Project Postmortem Report Template

Post-mortems are an essential part of software projects. Use this template to produce a clear post-mortem report that includes an overview, key accomplishments, problem areas, ongoing development and maintenance needs, and more. The template also includes a table for organizing assessment criteria, identifying issues, and planning action items. Customize the report to focus on deliverables, project scope, performance in specific stages, quality concerns, or other important factors.

Download Software Project Post-Mortem Template

Word | PDF

 

Project Post-Mortem Checklist

Project Postmortem Checklist Template

Streamline your post-mortem process — while also adapting it to fit your team — by creating a checklist with each important step in the project. This template includes checkboxes and a completion date for each item, which provides additional accountability. Choose a PDF or Google Sheets version to share with relevant project team members.

Download Project Post-Mortem Checklist

Excel | PDF 

For the roundup of all project post-mortem and IT incident post-mortem templates, please refer to our free post-mortem template roundup article.

Streamline your Post-Mortem Meetings with Smartsheet for Project Management

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

 

 

 

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

Get free Smartsheet templates Get a Free Smartsheet Demo