# Create Postmortems

{% embed url="<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-vY2iCoyTU>" %}

Postmortems are a way to summarize the resolution for an incident once it is resolved. It is also a way for you to create a knowledge-base of failures and fixes that can be shared across your team to help build a culture of shared learning and learning from failures.

In this documentation, we’ll be going through how to create Postmortems.

### Prerequisites <a href="#prerequisites" id="prerequisites"></a>

* Ensure that the users of the Team have the right Roles (with the right permissions associated with the Postmortem entity) to be able to create and manage Postmortems
* The Postmortem feature is enabled for an incident only after it has been **resolved**. Hence, an incident first needs to be **resolved.**

![right permissions to manage postmortem](https://1574591692-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8TaWz01jmUJl58p4ZVel%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-fb9ff2138dc3de890e15df2818f0a78c04981f40%2Fcreate_postmortems_gb_1.png?alt=media)

### Creating a Postmortem <a href="#creating-a-postmortem" id="creating-a-postmortem"></a>

To create a Postmortem for a resolved incident:

1. Navigate to the **Incident Details** page for the incident and click on **Start Postmortem.**
2. You can select one of the **Postmortem Templates** from the drop-down.
3. The **Postmortem Title** is auto-populated with your Incident Name as default. You can edit it, and start documenting the Postmortem.

{% hint style="info" %} <mark style="color:blue;">**Note:**</mark> The <mark style="color:red;">`incident variables`</mark> will auto-populate as per the data available for that particular incident. The remaining details need to be manually filled in by the user by editing the Postmortem.
{% endhint %}

4. You can select the **Postmortem Status** from the drop-down. The status indicates where in our process the postmortem currently is. The available statuses include:
   1. **In Progress** - Indicates that the postmortem is currently a work in progress.
   2. **Under Review** - Indicates that the postmortem is currently under review.
   3. **Published** - Indicates that the postmortem has been reviewed and is published. This is the final stage.

{% hint style="info" %} <mark style="color:blue;">**Note:**</mark> You can export postmortem reports at any stage, and this status field will not be reflected in the exported file.
{% endhint %}

5. Apart from the Markdown body in a Postmortem, you can also create a **checklist of follow-ups** that can be used to keep track of further actions that need to be done for that incident.
6. Click on **Create** to save the Postmortem

Once a Postmortem is created, any member of the Team with the right permissions can view and manage the Postmortem

{% hint style="info" %} <mark style="color:blue;">**Note:**</mark> Once the Postmortem is created (and updated), it can be downloaded offline in either <mark style="color:red;">`Markdown (MD)`</mark> or <mark style="color:red;">`PDF`</mark> format.
{% endhint %}

### Adding Attachments <a href="#adding-attachments" id="adding-attachments"></a>

You can add a variety of file types as an attachment in the Postmortem of an incident.

To attach a file, drag and drop the file to the markdown editor. You can also copy-paste the file directly into the markdown editor.

The maximum size for a single file is 10 MB (for upload). You can upload a maximum of 5 files at a time.

{% hint style="info" %}
The storage limit for an organization depends on the plan:\
\
**Free Plan** - 50 MB\
**Pro, Premium, and Enterprise** - Unlimited
{% endhint %}

File uploads won’t work if the plan limit has been reached. File once uploaded cannot be deleted.

The supported file types are:

* Images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg)
* Word Processors (.doc, .docx, .odt, pages)
* Spreadsheets (.xls, .xlsx, numbers)
* PDFs (.pdf)
* Presentations (.ppt, .pptx. .odp)
* Miscellaneous (.log, .txt, .eml, .msg, .csv, .key, .json)

### Updating a Postmortem <a href="#updating-a-postmortem" id="updating-a-postmortem"></a>

We understand that conducting Postmortems and documenting them is an iterative process in some cases. In Squadcast, once a Postmortem is created, users with the right permissions can update the Postmortems as well.

There are 2 ways to do this:

1. For an incident, head over to its **Incident Details** page and click on **Update Postmortem**. Switch to the **Edit** mode. Then, make the necessary modifications and click on **Update**

<figure><img src="https://1574591692-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8TaWz01jmUJl58p4ZVel%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9f522fb5a1b200a124667d88a523b7b7143c87cb%2Fpostmortem_new_3.png?alt=media&#x26;token=72c74ec0-df45-4967-b0dd-e16e929535ca" alt="Update Postmortem"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

2. Head over to **Postmortems** from the navigation on the left, and scroll to the applicable Postmortem in the list. Click on the **Edit** icon, make the necessary changes and click on **Update.**

*Have any questions?* [*Ask the community*](https://community.squadcast.com/view/home)*.*