Pre-mortem: imagine failure to succeed

When to use it

• Just before launching a project or a major phase.
• Nobody dares to bring up risks (group pressure).
• You want a simple prevention plan.

How to do it, step by step

1. Announce: “it is 6 months from now and the project failed”.
2. Everyone silently writes down every possible reason for the failure.
3. Pool the causes and group them.
4. Rank them by likelihood and impact.
5. For the most important ones, decide on a prevention action and an owner.

Example

“The launch failed because the supplier delivered late and nobody tracked dependencies.” Action: a weekly supplier follow-up task and a decision deadline.

In FluidOps

In FluidOps' “Other tools” tab, fill in the board with your team, save it and export it as PNG or PDF.

Try it in FluidOps →

Going further

• The Pre-Mortem Technique: Simulating Failure to Succeed
• The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Project Estimates: Why Beginners Underestimate Everything

Same family

• 5 Whys
• Ishikawa diagram
• Eisenhower matrix
• RACI matrix
• All methods
• Start from your problem: which tool for which problem?