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Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects smarter!
The document emphasizes the importance of capturing lessons learned in project management to enhance future project success. It discusses common barriers project managers face in collecting this information, such as lack of time and perceived value, and provides best practices for effectively recording and utilizing lessons learned throughout the project lifecycle. Key recommendations include reviewing past projects, collecting insights regularly, and ensuring discretion in managing sensitive information.
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Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects smarter!
- 1. Capturing Lessons LearnedInformation – Making your current and future projects smarter!
- 2. Bill Dow, PMP DowPublishing LLC Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects smarter!
- 3. Importance of Project Communica tions• 1.Project Failures & Survey’s • 2. Common Communication Problems • 3. Project Communication Planning • 4. Project Management & Social Media • 5. Project Communications & Agile Projects • 6. Project Management & Business Intelligence Agenda 1. Report on Lessons Learned at Project Kick-off 2. Collect Lessons Learned throughout life of project 3. Review Lessons Learned information from past projects 4. Show discretion in capturing Lessons Learned information 5. Reporting Lessons Learned information at the end of the Project
- 4. • Today’s projectmanagers do not track Lesson’s Learned information on their project’s. • We can show project managers survey after survey on why projects fail and it really doesn’t matter. If project managers don’t see value, in collecting Lessons Learned information, they won’t do it. • It may be a bold statement, but sadly it is true! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 5. • Why isthat? Why do project managers not collect Lessons Learned information on their projects? • What do we do about it? Who owns that problem? The PM? The PMO? The PM’s boss? • I am here today to tell you that it the project manager’s problem. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 6. Think about that!!!! CapturingLessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 7. Who is thefirst person the customer looks at when there is a problem? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 8. Who??? Capturing Lessons LearnedInformation – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 9. The Project Manager!!! CapturingLessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 10. What are someof the main reasons why project managers don’t take the time and collect Lessons Learned Information? Lack of time Don’t care, it will never happen to them Lack of management support Lack of resources Lack of guidelines – don’t know how? Lack of centralized knowledge base to store information Why? It is never going to be used again Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 11. • Some ofthese reasons seem valid, and that’s really the problem we are seeing across project management today! Because they seem valid, project managers think they are valid! That’s a problem! • I believe the fundamental reason that project managers don’t collect Lessons Learned information, is they don’t value the information! • They don’t believe their project will fail, or they do believe that they are better than the other project mangers, and they won’t make the same mistakes! That is a big problem! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 12. Capturing & UsingLesson’s Learned Information on your projects. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 13. • Best Practice# 1 – Report on Lessons Learned information at the project kick-off! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 14. • At theproject kick-off meeting, review Lessons Learned information from past or similar projects. • Spend some time, maybe a couple slides going over Lessons Learned information. • The caveat to those discussions – It shouldn’t take too long, and make the conversations meaningful. This is not a check box activity, don’t treat it that way! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 15. What do Imean by that? • Look at some of the challenges the projects had around communicating information, running the project, or dealing with stakeholders…etc. • One of the areas important to cover is looking at how past projects communicated project information. Where did they struggle, what went well? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 16. Example: Project Kick-offAgenda Agenda Item Description Owner / Responsible 1 Review Lessons Learned Information Project Manager 2 Review Project Charter Project Manager 3 Review Project Scope Project Manager 4 Review Project Resources Project Manager 5 Review Project Timelines Project Manager 6 Review Project Risks & Issues Project Manager 7 Obtain Project Sign-offs & Approvals Project Manager 8 Walk-ons All Team “How did reporting go? How did the team communicate? Special needs of the customer?
- 17. Example: Project Kick-offLessons Learned • Project Name: Jones Construction Project: • Scope: There were several change requests on the project scope. Project team continued to have to review the impacts of each CR which took them away from executing the project. • Time: Project team hit every major deliverable on time. • Resources: Project team had a huge turn-over of project resources. Highly leverage vendor staff for effort. ** AREA TO WATCH?? **
- 18. • For example,on one large project, I had a customer that wanted a status report every Thursday delivered to them in person. I had to go over every inch of that report. The project colors, budget, risks, issues, resources. • Another example, I had a customer that wanted a .mpp (Microsoft Project) file sent to them EOD Fridays. • Knowing this information from the project kick-off, will help the project team be much better prepared. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 19. There are thousandsof these kinds of examples!!! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 20. • Reviewing pastprojects experiences will only help set expectations from the very beginning and set you up to run a successful project. • Spend the time, go over Lessons Learned information from past projects which will give you the best chance of success! • Failing to review Lessons Learned information, could have you making the same mistakes! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 21. • Best Practice# 2 – Collecting Lessons Learned information throughout the life of your project! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 22. • Starting fromthe first project status meeting and continue that process throughout the project. • Collecting Lesson’s Learned information from the beginning allows you to make course correction along the way. • Many project manager’s miss this step – PM’s lose the ability to see patterns and change things up along the way! i.e. Bob is always late on his deliverables…. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 23. • How doyou do that? How do you collect Lessons Learned information throughout the life of your project? • You start from the first status meeting and you ask your team “What is going well?” & “Where are we struggling?”…. • Are we doing ok? Is the project on time? On budget? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 24. Those words don’thave to be exact! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 25. But the onething you don’t do….. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 26. Don’t tell yourteam you are collecting Lessons Learned Information! – Just do it! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 27. • If yousay the word “Lessons Learned”, it will quickly devalue the process and you won’t get anything out of your team members! • So, you must be a bit tricky, and you have to “collect” the Lessons Learned information, without them knowing it. •It is easy… Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 28. Agenda Item Description Owner /Responsible 1 Review Last week’s Minutes Project Manager 2 Review Current Action items All Team 3 Review Project Schedule All Team 4 Major Area Updates All Team Leads 5 Review Current Budget information Project Manager 6 Project Risks All Team 7 Project Issues All Team 8 Lessons Learned Information All Team 9 Walk-ons All Team “What is going well?” & “Where are we struggling?” “How are things going?...etc.” Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 29. • Incorporating yourLessons Learned information directly into your weekly status agenda, will help you drive a successful project. • Especially, if you need to do any course corrections, any adjustments of staff, process changes…etc. • Just remember, don’t call it “Lesson’s Learned”, capture it more discreetly, and you will have a much easier time. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 30. • When capturingyour Lessons Learned, don’t make the process too complex, create yourself a document or spreadsheet and start creating your big bucket categories: Schedule: 1. What went right? 2. What went wrong? 3. What could have been better? • Keep creating the project categories and capture these three answers for every category? Resources, Communications…etc. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Budget: 1. What went right? 2. What went wrong? 3. What could have been better?
- 31. Project Management Methodology Initiating Planning Executing& Control ClosingCollect LessonsLearned Information Collect LessonsLearned Information Collect LessonsLearned Information Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Collect LessonsLearned Information
- 32. Project Name: ________________Project Manager Name: _________________ Project Area: What is going right? What is not going well? What could be better? Notes: Scope Time Budget Resources KPI’s Communications Risks & Issues Project Quality Team Performance Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 33. • Using asimple and easy form like this will help you collect lessons learned information during your project. • It does not have to be complex, it does not have to take a lot of time to complete, you just must do it! • Collecting Lessons Learned information during your project status meeting, will allow you to hear first hand how the project is executing directly from your team members. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 34. • Best Practice# 3 – Review Project Lessons Learned information from past projects Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 35. • One ofthe biggest mistakes project managers make, is to stop learning and trying to improve their project management skills! • Once a project manager gives up and stops wanting to learn, their projects will suffer. • One of the best ways to learn, is to review what other project managers have done. Review the other project manager’s projects and determine if there is anything you can take to leverage for your project. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 36. • There arelarge projects going on in every company. • Sometimes they have hired guns running these large efforts, and other times it is senior level employees. • The bigger the projects are, the more experienced the project manager tends to be. • The more experienced the PM, the more you can learn from them! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 37. How do youdo that? How do you learn from the hired guns? • Start reviewing their projects. Look at how they are managing their projects and take those key learnings and apply to your project. • Focus your research on the real tactical aspects of the project. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 38. • Project Budgetinformation - How was budget managed, what reports were built, what dashboards? How was it tracked? • Project Schedules? What reports? Did customers want to see the timeline or did they like the Gantt chart? • Project Resources - What resource reports did the stakeholders want to see? • Other big buckets of project information.. Risks/Issues…etc. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 39. • When reviewingthe various aspects of the project look for the following three areas: 1. What went right? 2. What went wrong? 3. What could have been better? Look across project schedules, project communications, budgets, project resources, to answer these three questions across the critical project areas. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 40. • Some companieshave centralized databases, or standard SharePoint sites where Lessons Learned data is stored for you to review. • It seems like today, those repositories are harder and harder to find, but when you do find them, the wealth of data you find is priceless. • Spend the time and review past information where you can. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 41. • Best Practice# 4 – Show discretion in capturing Lessons Learned information! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 42. • Collecting LessonsLearned information throughout the life of the project requires discretion. This is not information that in most cases can be shared. It is just for you! • Project Managers are going to have to be discreet in what information can and can not be shared. • Sharing information that should not be shared, can quickly turn into the team members not trusting you. That’s the worst place you can be in! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 43. • Collect yourlesson’s learned information offline in a folder or a document that is not sharable. • Offline hard drives, secured folders on SharePoint, but where ever you collect the data, use security and discretion whenever possible. • Sharing “Bob is always late in his deliverables” or “Mary is the worst employee ever” is not going to help anyone if the information gets out. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 44. Project Name: ________________Project Manager Name: _________________ Project Area: What is going right? What is not going well? What could be better? Notes: Scope Al keeps changing the scope! Time Project keeps missing dates Budget We have hit each major budget milestone. Resources Bob delivers late all the time. Mary is causing huge project problems. We can’t keep staffing our project with vendors. There was no FTE budget for the project. KPI’s Communications Jeff is a horrible communicator! He won’t email, he won’t have 1:1’s. Risks & Issues Weekly tracking of project risks has been helpful Project Quality Team Performance Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 45. • This isthe type of information you will hear from your team members. • But what do you do with that information? • Is it helpful for project managers to hear one employee complain about another? • No, not if there is no trend! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Source of graphic: www.pxhere.com
- 46. • If thereis a trend, watch that trend, not too long, don’t rush it, make sure you are seeing the same thing you are hearing and then react! • Make sure you don’t react too quickly! • Reacting too quickly, could hurt your reputation with all your team members. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 47. • Watching andlistening to your project team members is a critical way of staying connected to your team. • Project managers must spend the time and listen, but don’t react immediately. • Building bonds and understanding your team members will give you the best chance of delivering a successful project. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 48. • Best Practice# 5 – Reporting Lessons Learned information at the end of the project! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 49. • One ofthe last items project managers complete in shutting down a project is to hold the Lessons Learned review meeting. • However, most project managers make the mistake of letting the project getting close to finishing, then start asking the team members for their Lessons Learned information. That is a huge mistake!! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 50. Project Management Methodology Initiating Planning Executing& Control ClosingCollect LessonsLearned Information Collect LessonsLearned Information Collect LessonsLearned Information Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Collect LessonsLearned InformationRemember this process??
- 51. • This processis going to have you capturing Lessons Learned information throughout the life of the project. • At the end of that process, you are going to have a huge table of information that you captured throughout the project! • If you don’t follow this process, you are going to be running around trying to collect this information from team members who could be long gone! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Don’t fall into that trap!
- 52. Project Name: ________________Project Manager Name: _________________ Project Area: What is going right? What is not going well? What could be better? Notes: Scope Al keeps changing the scope! Time Project keeps missing dates Budget We have hit each major budget milestone. Resources Bob delivers late all the time. Mary is causing huge project problems. We can’t keep staffing our project with vendors. There was no FTE budget for the project. KPI’s Communications Jeff is a horrible communicator! Risks & Issues Weekly tracking of project risks has been helpful Project Quality Team Performance Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
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- 54. • Following theprocess of collecting Lessons Learned information throughout the project is critical in ensuring you have not missed information along the way! • If you ever tried getting information from team members who have long left the project, it is never going to happen! You have lost that time, and you will never get it back! • Compiling the information can be challenging to bubble up into a report but, at least you have the information. Look for trends and patterns and report that information in your Lessons Learned review meeting! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter!
- 55. Summary 1 2 Lessons Learned informationis critical to start capturing from the very beginning and all throughout the life of the project. Adding Lessons Learned to your weekly agenda provides that constant reminder to capture this valuable information. 3 Look for trends and continue to look for areas of improvement on your project. Course correction throughout your project gives you your best chance of success.
- 56. Bill Dow, PMP DowPublishing LLC 425-736-7171 billdow@dowpublishingllc.com www.dowpublishingllc.com
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Editor's Notes
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