Now, let's say that your product has shipped, and the software is live. However, it's clear that for some reason the project didn't go well, at least in some respects. Perhaps it was over budget, it missed the agreed schedule, or the quality wasn't to the required standard, or any combination of these. Maybe your project did go well from a stakeholder point of view. However, there's always room for improvement. These are all situations where the rather ominous-sounding "post-mortem" is useful.
Before we dive into the post-mortem process, it's worth pointing out that there are two ways of thinking about this topic. A post-mortem could be positive or negative; or constructive or destructive.
If we start with the destructive, or at least non-constructive, way of thinking, then clearly this is a minefield of politics and possible...