Pre-Mortem Analysis
Imagine your project has failed. Pre-Mortem analysis identifies why—before it happens. Detect bottlenecks, resource conflicts, deadline risks, and correlated failures in your plan.
What It Does
Pre-Mortem inverts the typical project review process. Instead of waiting for failure, you assume failure occurred and work backwards to identify the most likely causes. Forese.ai automates this process using algorithmic analysis and AI narrative generation.
Bottleneck Detection
Identifies critical path nodes with high fan-out and long serial dependency chains that create coordination risk.
Resource Conflicts
Detects team member over-allocation, parallel task conflicts, and unassigned work that may be forgotten.
Deadline Feasibility
Calculates the probability of hitting each milestone based on Monte Carlo results and highlights at-risk deadlines.
Risk Clustering
Finds groups of correlated risks that share common triggers, amplifying failure probability when one occurs.
Why It Matters
Most project plans fail not from a single catastrophic error, but from the accumulation of correlated failures no one anticipated. Pre-Mortem shifts your thinking from “this should work” to “what could break this?”
Research shows teams using Pre-Mortem techniques identify 30% more risks than traditional planning methods. By systematically exploring failure modes, you create contingencies before they're needed—not in panic mode when issues surface.
The Psychology of Pre-Mortem
Asking “what could go wrong?” triggers defensiveness. Stating “this failed—why?” gives permission to think critically without feeling like you're being negative.
How to Use It
Build your project plan on the canvas
Create tasks, set dependencies, assign team members, and add milestone deadlines. The more complete your plan, the more insights Pre-Mortem can provide.
Open the Pre-Mortem dialog
Click the "Pre-Mortem" button in your project toolbar. This triggers analysis of your current canvas state.
Review the risk score
Pre-Mortem calculates an overall risk score (0-100) based on bottlenecks, resource conflicts, deadline pressure, and risk clusters. Higher = more systemic risk.
Explore failure scenarios
AI generates narrative scenarios describing plausible ways your project could fail, grounded in the detected structural issues.
Act on recommendations
Each recommendation includes priority level, effort estimate, and affected nodes. Filter by "critical" to focus on the highest-impact changes.
Re-run after changes
As you adjust your plan, run Pre-Mortem again to verify your risk score improves and new issues haven't emerged.
Understanding the Risk Score
The risk score aggregates findings from all four analysis engines. It's not a prediction of failure—it's a measure of structural fragility in your plan.
Well-structured plan with balanced dependencies, adequate resources, and realistic timelines.
Some concerning patterns detected. Address critical recommendations before committing to deadlines.
Multiple systemic issues detected. Significant re-planning recommended before execution begins.
Best Practices
Run early, run often
Pre-Mortem is most valuable during initial planning. Run it before locking in commitments, then after major plan changes.
Involve the team
Share failure scenarios in planning meetings. The narrative format makes risks tangible for non-technical stakeholders.
Address critical items first
Focus on recommendations marked "critical" priority. These have the highest impact-to-effort ratio.
Track risk score over time
Record your risk score before and after plan adjustments. Aim to reduce it below 40 before kickoff.
Don't ignore soft warnings
Resource conflicts and unassigned tasks may seem minor, but they often cause last-minute scrambles.
Combine with Monte Carlo
Pre-Mortem identifies structural issues; Monte Carlo quantifies timeline uncertainty. Use both for complete visibility.
Common Questions
Does a high risk score mean my project will fail?
No. It means your plan has structural weaknesses that increase failure probability. The score is diagnostic, not predictive—use it to improve your plan before execution.
How often should I run Pre-Mortem?
Run it during initial planning, after major scope changes, and when you add significant dependencies or deadlines. For active projects, monthly reviews help catch emerging issues.
What if I disagree with a recommendation?
Recommendations are suggestions based on pattern detection. You know your project context better than any algorithm. Use them as prompts for discussion, not mandates.
Can Pre-Mortem detect scope creep or stakeholder issues?
Not directly. Pre-Mortem analyzes the structure of your plan—dependencies, resources, timelines. External factors like changing requirements require human judgment.
Credit Cost
15 credits per analysis
Covers AI reasoning for comprehensive failure prediction.
Tier Availability
Free
Not available
Pro
Full access
Premium
Full + team sharing