Y08W23RC Pre-Mortem Planner

Most people plan for what they hope will happen — but experienced planners also think ahead about what might go wrong. This week, you will read a case study that shows how one student used this kind of thinking before starting a major project, and what difference it made when obstacles actually appeared. As you read, notice the logic behind each planning decision — there is a clear cause-and-effect chain running through the whole text.

Informative — Case study

A case study is a detailed account of one real or realistic example, used to show how a particular approach, strategy, or situation played out in practice. Writers use this form to inform readers by making an abstract idea or concept concrete — instead of explaining a principle in general terms, they show it working (or not working) in a specific situation. You can expect to find a clear context and goal at the start, followed by a sequence of decisions, events, and outcomes, often organised under headings that mark each stage of the example. The case study may also include specific details like plans, lists, or checkpoints that show how the subject approached the task. As a reader, your job is to follow the sequence of cause and effect — tracking what decisions were made, why they were made, and what actually happened as a result.

Before You Read

  • Scan the section headings before you begin reading — they outline the stages of the case study and give you a preview of the structure you are about to follow.
  • Think about what most people know from experience: plans that only account for things going well often fall apart the moment something unexpected happens — and something unexpected usually does.
  • The case study includes a formatted list within the body of the text — treat it as a distinct section rather than skimming past it, because it is doing specific structural work in the example being presented.

While You Read

  • As you move through each section, track the connection between what was planned and what actually happened — notice whether the outcomes follow directly from the decisions made earlier.
  • When a specific planning rule or strategy is introduced, pause and consider the reasoning behind it — ask yourself what problem it was designed to solve and whether that reasoning holds up.
  • Pay attention to how the case study handles setbacks — notice whether they are presented as failures or as expected events that were planned for, and consider what that difference suggests.
  • Notice the cause-and-effect language the writer uses to connect decisions to outcomes — words and phrases like 'because', 'as a result', and 'which meant that' are doing important work in this kind of text.

Read With Purpose

  • Notice which risk the subject chose to focus on and why — pay attention to the reasoning behind selecting one prevention over many possible ones.
  • Keep the idea of a 'pre-mortem' in mind as you read — notice how thinking about failure in advance changes the way the subject responds when a real obstacle arrives.
  • Pay attention to the final reflection — consider what the case study suggests about the difference between a plan that removes problems and a plan that prepares you to handle them.

Now read

The case study

~4 min read · ~721 words

Case Study: The Pre-Mortem Plan

The Goal

Zara had six weeks to complete a Year 8 science project on renewable energy. The task was substantial — a written report, a visual display, and a short presentation to the class. She had attempted something similar the previous year and run into problems near the deadline, finishing in a rush and feeling like the final result did not reflect what she was capable of. This time, she decided to try something different before she even started.

What Could Go Wrong

Before writing a single word, Zara sat down and wrote a list — not of what she needed to do, but of what could go wrong. She called it her ‘pre-mortem’: imagining the project had already failed and working backwards to figure out why. The word ‘mortem’ relates to examining what caused something to stop working, and a pre-mortem does the same thing in advance — before the failure happens.

Her list looked like this:

  • Leaving research too late and running out of time
  • Getting stuck on one section and losing momentum on the rest
  • Group members not completing their parts (she had one partner for the display)
  • Technical problems with the presentation slides the night before
  • Underestimating how long the written report would take

Looking at the list, Zara noticed something: most of the risks were not about effort or ability. They were about timing, coordination, and assumptions — things she could actually plan for.

The Prevention Plan

Zara did not try to prevent every item on her list. Instead, she chose the risk that was most likely and would cause the most damage if it hit: getting stuck on one section and losing momentum. She had experienced this before. When one part felt hard, she would avoid it, then fall further behind until the whole project felt impossible.

Her prevention plan was simple: if she spent more than twenty minutes unable to make progress on any section, she would move to a different part of the project and come back. She wrote this down as a rule — ‘the twenty-minute switch’ — and put it at the top of her project notes.

She also set a milestone — a specific checkpoint — for each week, so she could see at a glance whether she was on track or falling behind. Week one: topic confirmed and research sources listed. Week two: notes completed. Week three: draft report written. Week four: display materials gathered. Week five: both report and display finished. Week six: presentation practised twice.

When the Obstacle Hit

In week three, exactly the kind of problem Zara had predicted arrived. She was stuck on the section about solar energy storage — she could not find sources she fully understood, and the more she read, the more confused she felt. In previous projects, this is where things had unravelled.

This time, she applied the rule. After twenty minutes of difficulty, she moved to the section on wind energy, which she found clearer. She came back to solar storage two days later, after a conversation with her science teacher had helped her get a better footing on the concepts. She finished the report section on time.

Her partner did miss one meeting, which was one of the risks Zara had listed. Because she had anticipated the possibility, she had already planned to keep her own copy of the display notes up to date. The delay set them back slightly, but did not derail the project.

The Outcome

Zara submitted the project on time. The written report was the strongest part — methodical and clearly structured. She reflected afterwards that the pre-mortem had not eliminated problems. It had just made her less surprised when they appeared, and more prepared to respond to them without panicking.

‘The plan didn’t make everything go smoothly,’ she wrote in her reflection. ‘It just meant that when things went sideways, I already had a move.’

The project earned her the highest grade she had received in science.

What the Pre-Mortem Does

The pre-mortem is a planning tool originally used in professional project management and later adapted for personal goal-setting. Its value is not in predicting the future perfectly. It is in shifting the planner’s thinking from ‘this will probably work out’ to ‘what would I do if it didn’t?’ That shift — from optimism to preparation — is what makes the difference when real obstacles arrive.

Check your vocabulary knowledge

momentum n.
the energy or forward progress that keeps a project or effort moving
milestone n.
a specific checkpoint used to measure progress toward a larger goal
unravelled v.
came apart or fell to pieces, especially after a period of difficulty
methodical adj.
carried out in a careful, ordered, and systematic way
anticipated v.
predicted something might happen and prepared for it in advance