SQL Server Incident Report Template: How to Document a Performance Post-Mortem
A fix without a written record teaches nothing to the next person who hits a similar symptom. This template mirrors the Evidence-First workflow directly, so writing the report is almost free once you’ve actually done the diagnosis.
1. Summary
One paragraph: what broke, for how long, and who/what was affected. Written for someone who wasn’t in the room.
2. Baseline
What did normal look like, with numbers? (duration, CPU, I/O, or whatever metric defines “working” for this system)
3. Timeline
Timestamped sequence: when was it first noticed, when did diagnosis start, when was the fix applied, when was it confirmed resolved.
4. Evidence Captured
Exactly what was captured and how (Extended Events session definition, DMV queries run, execution plan attached). Paste the actual queries — future-you will thank present-you.
5. Root Cause
The specific, technical cause — not “the database was slow,” but “missing nonclustered index on OrderLog.customer_id causing a clustered index scan on a 400M-row table.”
6. Fix Applied
The exact change made, plus why this specific fix (not a bigger rewrite, not a hardware upgrade) was the right scope.
7. Validation
Post-fix measurement against the Step 2 baseline, with numbers.
8. Prevention
Would monitoring (Module 6) have caught this earlier? Is this a pattern worth a standing alert or a schema review checklist item?
Why the Structure Matters
Following this template forces you to separate what happened from what you did about it from whether it actually worked — exactly the discipline the Evidence-First workflow teaches, just written down for the next person instead of held in your head.
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