Pre-Mortem Analysis: Anticipating Project Failures

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1. 28 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   Corrected a date error: Gary Klein's pre-mortem technique was popularized in his 2007 Harvard Business Review article 'Performing a Project Premortem,' not developed by him in 1989 - 1989 is the year of the Mitchell, Russo, and Pennington study that established the prospective-hindsight effect Klein's technique builds on. Verified accurate and left in place: the Mitchell/Russo/Pennington 1989 study description, the Klein HBR 2007 group-norm quotation, and the Klein 2015 Naturalistic Decision Making interview quotation.

   What the page claimed

   The article stated Gary Klein developed the pre-mortem technique in 1989, the same year as the Mitchell/Russo/Pennington prospective-hindsight study his technique is based on.

   What was corrected

   Corrected Klein's pre-mortem to its 2007 Harvard Business Review origin, distinguishing it from the 1989 academic study it builds on.

   Why: The two distinct dates (1989 academic study, 2007 practitioner technique) had been conflated into one. Correction separates them using the article's own correctly-cited 2007 HBR quotation.

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