Now at #LISA19, we have "What Connections Can Teach Us about Postmortems" from Chastity Blackwell (@Black_Isis)
@Black_Isis #LISA19: 8 specific technologies have come out of this
@Black_Isis #LISA19: New technologies are just a collection of previous technologies that are deployed in a new way
@Black_Isis #LISA19: A post mortem is a story. (That document you present at the end of it all, this is how your organization learns.
how we tell this story is how folks will learn from it.)
how we tell this story is how folks will learn from it.)
@Black_Isis #LISA19: - telling the story is so important because a completely logical brain does not exist. We learn from @allspaw that Incidents are not linear
@Black_Isis @allspaw @Black_Isis #LISA19: relationships are one of the most important things that come out of postmortems.
- for example, those incidents that happen every third Tuesday of the month
- highlighting these relationships helps us create better models
- for example, those incidents that happen every third Tuesday of the month
- highlighting these relationships helps us create better models
@Black_Isis #LISA19: We learn that zooming in on people and systems helps very much. This is about asking what they do, did and how it affected it all.
Zoom in on a person that figured it out, was it a metric that gave a clue? did they remember an email?
Zoom in on a person that figured it out, was it a metric that gave a clue? did they remember an email?
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: Look at things at the perspective of that person in that moment and at that time.
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: It's more complex than you think. Encourage people to think more and the technologies are around them.
you can't make post mortems include everything everyone needs to know, we need to make choices about what we include
you can't make post mortems include everything everyone needs to know, we need to make choices about what we include
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: It's hard to make them (post mortems) fun to read, make them accessible and possibly enjoyable. We as engineers need to cultivate better writing skills
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: Add some images and gifs, but don't overdo it. These images can help but make sure they are relevant to the subject in hand. You want folks to remember the post mortem not just the gifs you used
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: Avoid some pitfalls:
- avoid trying to tell the story until after the investigation is done. Do the investigation, hen see how the pieces fit together.
- avoid trying to tell the story until after the investigation is done. Do the investigation, hen see how the pieces fit together.
@Black_Isis #LISA19: - grab the experience from all those involved in the incident (opinion: 1:1 interviews are great for this)
@Black_Isis #LISA19:
- start with events, not the reasons, create a timeline of raw data (chat logs, config changes, deployments)
- start with events, not the reasons, create a timeline of raw data (chat logs, config changes, deployments)
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: Real life doesn't have a beginning, middle, and end. Your narrative will be different for every incident. Your flow can be split by systems ot who was responding instead.
@Black_Isis @Black_Isis #LISA19: to recap this is how you can make postmortems more interesting. /fin 
