Why does this have "post mortem" in the title? It is so misleading. Whenever I read "post mortem" in a title I immediately think somebody or something has died (possibly metaphorically). In this case I expected the article to be about an abandoned (dead) project. It was a very confusing read.
Maybe it's because English isn't my native language and the Latin meaning just makes a lot more sense to me.
"Post mortem" as a noun in English is short for "post mortem examination." It does refer to examining a dead body, but it's a common term in software development as well. It refers to the process of going over a completed project and figuring out what went right and what went wrong.
No, the Latin and English meanings are the same. It isn't 100% clear what the author thought he was saying, though he probably meant a debrief (as guessed by OP).
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Why does this have "post mortem" in the title? It is so misleading. Whenever I read "post mortem" in a title I immediately think somebody or something has died (possibly metaphorically). In this case I expected the article to be about an abandoned (dead) project. It was a very confusing read.
Maybe it's because English isn't my native language and the Latin meaning just makes a lot more sense to me.
"Post mortem" as a noun in English is short for "post mortem examination." It does refer to examining a dead body, but it's a common term in software development as well. It refers to the process of going over a completed project and figuring out what went right and what went wrong.
Jeff Atwood wrote an essay on it a while back if you want to read more about it: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/the-project-postmor...
No, the Latin and English meanings are the same. It isn't 100% clear what the author thought he was saying, though he probably meant a debrief (as guessed by OP).
hmmm, I suppose I've always associated it with some manner of debriefing, i.e. a mission post mortem. But, to avoid confusion I've updated the title.
Edit: Nevermind; see chc's comment.