Incident Postmortem Templates — Operating Quantum Computers

Use this appendix for runtime, hardware, data, scientific-claim, and governance incidents.

Standard template

Illustrative listing · markdown

# Incident postmortem: <title>

## Summary
- Incident ID:
- Detected at:
- Resolved at:
- Severity:
- Affected systems:
- Affected claims or datasets:

## Impact
- Users affected:
- Jobs affected:
- Benchmark entries affected:
- Claims affected:
- Decisions affected:

## Timeline
- T0:
- T1:
- T2:

## Root causes
- Technical contributing factors:
- Process contributing factors:
- Detection gaps:

## Corrective actions
- Immediate fix:
- Preventive control:
- Test or monitor addition:
- Owner:
- Due date:

Diagram loads as you read

Standard template · Figure 1

View diagram source

flowchart LR
    Detect[Detect] --> Stabilize[Stabilize]
    Stabilize --> Scope[Scope impact]
    Scope --> Analyze[Analyze causes]
    Analyze --> Actions[Corrective actions]
    Actions --> Verify[Verify]

Quantum-specific impact table

Area	Required question
Jobs	Which job IDs, workflow IDs, and sessions were affected?
Hardware	Which backend, calibration window, qubits, couplers, or zones were affected?
Compilation	Which compiler version, target snapshot, and optimization profile were used?
Data	Which raw, processed, and derived datasets are suspect?
Claims	Which decks, dashboards, papers, or customer reports used the result?
Governance	Did access, quota, export-control, or review policy contribute?

Diagram loads as you read

Quantum-specific impact table · Figure 2

View diagram source

flowchart TB
    Impact[Impact analysis] --> Jobs[Jobs]
    Impact --> Hardware[Hardware context]
    Impact --> Compile[Compiler context]
    Impact --> Data[Data lineage]
    Impact --> Claims[Claim usage]
    Impact --> Governance[Governance]

Claim rollback record

Illustrative listing · yaml

claim_rollback:
  claim_id: ""
  original_status: active
  new_status: provisional | superseded | withdrawn
  reason: ""
  affected_artifacts:
    - uri: ""
      type: result_card | dashboard | paper | deck | customer_report
  replacement_result: ""
  approver: ""
  date: ""

Diagram loads as you read

Claim rollback record · Figure 3

View diagram source

stateDiagram-v2
    Active --> Provisional
    Provisional --> Reinstated
    Provisional --> Superseded
    Provisional --> Withdrawn

Quarterly review

Diagram loads as you read

Quarterly review · Figure 4

View diagram source

flowchart TB
    Incidents[Quarter incidents] --> Cluster[Cluster by failure mode]
    Cluster --> Trends[Trend analysis]
    Trends --> Gaps[Control gaps]
    Gaps --> Roadmap[Reliability roadmap]
    Roadmap --> Owners[Owners and due dates]

Quarterly questions:

Which incident class repeated?
Which corrective actions remained open?
Which actions were too weak?
Which monitors detected incidents late?
Which claims required rollback?
Which architectural changes would remove a failure class?