Lessons Learned

Quick reference

• 00:05 Hello again, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:07 I'd like to talk with you about an element of closing out your project that's called
• 00:10 the lessons learned.
• 00:12 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
• 00:16 defines lessons learned as, the knowledge gained during a project
• 00:20 which shows how project events were addressed or
• 00:23 should be addressed in the future with the purpose of improving project performance.
• 00:28 As you can see, the purpose of lessons learned is to learn, not to assign blame.
• 00:34 We want to learn what worked well and what did not so that we can improve it.
• 00:39 These are a retrospective look at project activities.
• 00:42 It should cover what, actually happened, both good and bad.
• 00:44 And it's not just the plan, it should include project initiation,
• 00:48 execution, and the project management methodology.
• 00:52 We normally do this at the end of the project.
• 00:55 However, on long multi-year projects,
• 00:57 I do a lessons learned at the end of each phase.
• 01:00 I have found that if I wait until the end of the project,
• 01:03 no one can remember accurately what actually happened four years ago.
• 01:07 In fact, many of the current project team members weren't even with the project
• 01:10 four years ago.
• 01:12 One more thing for organizational learning to really occur,
• 01:15 there needs to be some place where the lessons learned are recorded and shared.
• 01:19 Some type of project knowledge management system.
• 01:22 If you don't have one of those, you should still do the lessons learned session.
• 01:26 At least all of the project team members and
• 01:28 stakeholders who attend will personally learn and benefit from the session.
• 01:32 But for organization and learning, there needs to be an organizational database.
• 01:37 When I conduct lessons learned sessions, I focus on four different areas.
• 01:41 By the way, it's often helpful to have a facilitator for these sessions.
• 01:45 If there are sensitive personality issues or
• 01:47 hard feelings about some aspects of the project, an independent facilitator can
• 01:51 bring out the issue when team members might be reluctant to talk.
• 01:56 The first areas I look at is the project initiation.
• 01:59 This area focuses on whether we selected the right project
• 02:02 in getting the charter set.
• 02:04 The questions we ask are, did we choose a good project?
• 02:07 Were the goals and objectives clear?
• 02:09 And were the boundaries clear?
• 02:11 We wanna determine whether the organization did their job
• 02:14 to enable the team for success.
• 02:16 The best practices and
• 02:17 improvement gaps in this area are focused primarily on senior management practices.
• 02:22 I next discuss project planning.
• 02:24 This is focused on the core team and
• 02:26 in subject matter experts who helped with the planning.
• 02:29 The questions asked are, was our plan complete?
• 02:32 How good were the estimates?
• 02:34 And, were risks identified and did we do something about them?
• 02:38 We can't expect a successful project if we've had an incomplete or
• 02:41 unrealistic plan.
• 02:43 We need to identify the best practices and
• 02:45 any improvement gaps that should be addressed on future projects.
• 02:50 I also discuss the execution of the project plan.
• 02:53 It may have been a good plan but did we actually follow it?
• 02:56 Or it may have been a poor plan, but we worked through it and around it.
• 03:00 This is an attribute of execution.
• 03:03 The questions asked are, did we follow the plan?
• 03:05 Did we recognize issues and risks and react appropriately to them?
• 03:09 And, what are our team's strengths and weaknesses?
• 03:12 How well did this team work together?
• 03:14 Were the team behaviors supportive or destructive?
• 03:18 Obviously, this is very much focused at the team level.
• 03:21 Again, we're looking for best practices and improvement gaps.
• 03:25 The fourth area is the project management methodology.
• 03:28 That is, the system used for managing projects.
• 03:31 It includes the procedures, templates, and checklists along with reviews and
• 03:34 project management documents.
• 03:36 The questions asked are, did the methodology actually help the project or
• 03:41 hurt the project team?
• 03:42 And, were stakeholder interactions timely and at the right depth?
• 03:46 A well designed and implemented project management methodology
• 03:49 can accelerate a project and dramatically reduce risk.
• 03:52 A poorly designed or implemented one will delay the project and
• 03:56 introduce unnecessary risk.
• 03:58 When I facilitate a lessons learned session,
• 04:00 I ask my teams to identify at least one best practice for sharing, or
• 04:05 one specific need that the organization can provide assistance to teams for
• 04:08 improvement in each of the four focus areas.
• 04:12 We put the results in the knowledge management system for
• 04:14 use by other projects.
• 04:18 I encourage you to let lessons learned be part of your continuous improvement
• 04:22 approach.

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