After the outage is resolved, the team will ___ a postmortem to learn what happened.
We conduct a postmortem to formally review an incident in a structured, blameless way. Conduct is the preferred collocation because it implies a deliberate, organised process, the same way you conduct an investigation or a review. Do and make are too casual and vague for professional writing, and although perform is grammatically acceptable, it is far less common in SRE culture. Documents and templates almost always say "conduct a postmortem," so this verb-noun pairing is the one to internalise.
2 / 5
The most important step in a postmortem is to ___ the root cause of the failure.
To identify the root cause means to pinpoint the underlying reason an incident occurred, not just its symptoms. Identify collocates tightly with root cause because the goal is precise determination rather than casual observation. Discover suggests stumbling upon something, notice is too passive, and invent implies creating, which is the opposite of analysis. The phrase "root cause analysis" (RCA) is industry-standard, so identify the root cause is the expected, fluent choice in any postmortem.
3 / 5
Following the analysis, the facilitator will ___ action items to specific owners.
We assign action items when we allocate follow-up tasks to named individuals who are accountable for them. Assign is the precise collocation because action items require clear ownership and a deadline. Give, hand, and pass are informal and lack the sense of formal responsibility that assign conveys. In tools like Jira you literally see an "Assignee" field, reinforcing that assign action items is the standard phrasing used across project management and incident reviews alike.
4 / 5
A good postmortem process must ___ on each action item until it is actually completed.
To follow up means to check back on a task to ensure it progresses to completion. This phrasal verb is essential because postmortem action items are worthless if no one tracks them afterwards. The other options are not real English phrasal verbs in this context; only follow up carries the meaning of revisiting and chasing progress. You will hear managers say "let me follow up on that," confirming follow up on action items as the natural collocation for ensuring accountability after an incident.
5 / 5
A blameless postmortem focuses on systems and process, not on individual ___.
A blameless postmortem avoids individual blame, instead asking how the system allowed a mistake to cause harm. Blame is the exact term used in the phrase "blameless culture," which underpins modern incident response. Fault is close but collocates more with technical faults, guilt is emotional and out of place, and sin is entirely wrong register. The whole philosophy is summed up by "no individual blame," so blame is the precise word that completes this widely used SRE concept.