事前验尸：软件设计中的逆向工作

Pre-mortem is a strategy in which a team imagines that a project has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the failure of a project. The term was coined by cognitive researcher Gary Klein.

预先验收是一种策略，即团队想象一个项目已经失败，然后向后努力确定什么有可能导致项目的失败。这个术语是由认知研究人员Gary Klein创造的。

Unlike a post-mortem or root-cause analysis that is performed after things have failed, a pre-mortem is done before the start of the project. It uses “prospective hindsight” to help make better decisions by working backward and eliminate thinking biases.

与在事情失败后进行的事后总结或根本原因分析不同，事前总结是在项目开始前进行的。它使用 "前瞻性后见之明"，通过反向工作和消除思维偏差，帮助做出更好的决定。

This blog is about a customized version of pre-mortem that PayPal’s engineering team adopted last year. This strategy highly benefited our team and we are excited to share our story with the greater technology community.

这篇博客是关于PayPal工程团队去年采用的定制版事前验尸。这一策略使我们的团队受益匪浅，我们很高兴能与更大的技术社区分享我们的故事。

A twist in technical design review sessions — poke my design a.k.a pre-mortem

技术设计审查会议中的一个转折点--捅破我的设计，又称事前验尸

Once a technical design is documented, the standard next step is to have key stakeholders review the design.

一旦技术设计被记录下来，标准的下一步是让关键的利益相关者审查设计。

The pre-mortem strategy asks us to flip that script, and ask what if the proposed design implementation failed. The next step in this strategy is to brainstorm with your team on the possible reasons for the technical design to fail. A main point to keep in mind is to get creative with your team. Come up with as many ideas for failure as possible. Finding faults for the greater good is a liberating exercise, especially when initiated at the beginning of a project. The aim is to bubble up the most robust design alternatives. It is key not to sweat on the solutions yet, just the problems. Brainstorming solutions can come later as a team.

事前验尸策略要求我们翻转剧本，并询问如果提议的设计实施失败了怎么办。这个策略的下一步是和你的团队一起集思广益，找出技术设计失败的可能原因。要记住的一个要点是和你的团队一起发挥创造力。尽可能多地想出失败的想法。为更大的利益寻找错误是一项解放思想的工作，特别是在项目开始的时候。我们的目的是要找出最可靠的设计方案。关键是不要在解决方案上出汗，而只是在问题上...