program-premortemlisted

# Program Premortem: the twelve ways program managers fail Programs rarely die from the risk on the register. They die from patterns everyone has seen and nobody names in time. This skill names them, checks the plan against each, and prescribes the smallest intervention that changes the outcome. ## Files this skill drives - [../../templates/execution/risk-register.md](../../templates/execution/risk-register.md), where PRESENT findings land as owned risks - [../../templates/execution/dependency-register.md](../../templates/execution/dependency-register.md), the evidence base for modes 1 and 6 - The premortem runs before Gate 3 of [../../os/STAGE-GATES.md](../../os/STAGE-GATES.md); its findings are inputs to that gate's review - See also [../../frameworks/execution/fmea.md](../../frameworks/execution/fmea.md) (from MIL-P-1629, 1949) when the plan is sound and the system itself is what worries you. A premortem invents causes for one named failure; FMEA walks the design function by function and enumerates the failure modes nobody thought to name, which is the half this skill does not cover ## When to use - Before kickoff of anything with 3 or more teams or an external dependency - Before a cutover, migration, or regulated go-live - Before Gate 3, as the risk half of "architecture and risks reviewed" - When status has been green for six weeks and your instinct disagrees ## The twelve failure modes 1. **The date list wearing a plan costume.** Milestones exist; the dependency