Action Items Writing
SMART action items — specific action, named owner, absolute due date
SMART action item format
- Action: specific imperative verb — Add, Write, Configure, Deploy, Schedule
- Owner: named person or specific team — not "the team" or "everyone"
- Due: absolute date (YYYY-MM-DD) — not "next sprint" or "soon"
- Priority: P0 (prevents recurrence) → P1 (reduces risk) → P2 (systemic)
- Avoid "ensure", "make sure", "improve" — these are states, not actions
Question 0 of 5
Which post-mortem action item is written most effectively?
Specific action + owner + due date + metric threshold is the correct format. SMART action items:
- Specific: "alert for DB connection pool utilisation exceeding 80%" — not "improve monitoring"
- Measurable: "80% threshold" — verifiable when complete
- Assignable: "Owner: Platform team" — one named team/person
- Relevant: directly addresses the contributing factor from the RCA
- Time-bound: "Due: 2026-06-07" — absolute date, not "next sprint" or "soon"
Which field must EVERY post-mortem action item include?
Owner and due date are the minimum required fields. Why:
- Owner: without an assignee, no one is responsible — "the team" will mean no one acts
- Due date: without a deadline, action items drift indefinitely — they become a graveyard of good intentions
- Action: Imperative sentence describing what to do
- Owner: Named person or specific team
- Due: Absolute date (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Status: Open / In Progress / Done
- (Optional) Priority: P0–P2
Which action item is too vague to be considered actionable?
"Improve our testing process" — no specific action, no owner, no date. Why this fails:
- "Improve" is not an action — it is a direction. Actions are specific verbs: add, write, schedule, configure, update, deploy
- "Our testing process" does not specify which test, which service, which gap
- No owner → shared responsibility = no responsibility
- No date → will be reviewed next quarter, then the quarter after
A post-mortem has 15 action items of equal priority. What is the main risk?
Without priority, critical improvements get crowded out. Action item prioritisation:
- P0 (immediate): actions that prevent recurrence of the exact same incident — must be done before next deployment
- P1 (short-term): actions that significantly reduce risk or improve detection
- P2 (long-term): systemic improvements with a longer payoff horizon
You are reviewing a post-mortem action item: "Ensure staging mirrors production configuration." What is missing?
"Ensure" is vague + no owner + no date. Improving this action item:
- ❌ "Ensure staging mirrors production configuration" — no specific action, owner, or date
- ✅ "Add infrastructure-as-code validation step to CI pipeline that compares staging and production timeout, connection pool, and memory settings. Owner: Platform team. Due: 2026-06-21."
- Add, Write, Create, Configure, Deploy, Update, Schedule, Document, Review, Test