Given at the Technical Communications Summit, 4-5 pm on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 by Teresa Stover of Stover Writing Services.

1. LEARNING LESSONS
from a Completed Communications Project
Teresa S. Stover

2. OVERVIEW
Using Past
How Lessons
Lessons
Learned Help
Learned
Documenting Obtaining
Lessons Lessons
Learned Learned
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3. ROOM TO TALK
20+ years as a consultant
• Technical writing
• Project management
• Author of 15 books
STC Senior Member
• Consulting and Independent
Contracting SIG
• Willamette (Oregon) chapter
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4. BY ANY OTHER WORD
“Lessons Learned”
“Post Mortem”
“Debrief”
“Project Implementation Review”
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5. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?
What worked well
What didn’t work
What can be improved
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6. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
Collect input
Record feedback
Share knowledge
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7. WHO’S INVOLVED IN LESSONS LEARNED?
•Department head
Leaders: •Project manager
•Team leader
•Team member
•Writer
Practitioners: •Designer
•Developer
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8. WHAT KINDS OF PROJECTS BENEFIT?
User interface/user experience design
Instructional design
Training development and delivery
Website design and launch
Single source project
Online help
Web content development
Publication project 8

9. HOW LESSONS LEARNED HELP
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10. HOW LESSONS LEARNED HELP
 Build on success of
earlier projects
 Mitigate known risks
 Adjust the approach or
process
 Improve tools
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11. HOW LESSONS LEARNED HELP
 Foster continuous
improvement
 Advance professional
development
 Cultivate organizational
maturity
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12. HOW LESSONS LEARNED HELP
Schedule
Scope
People
Budget
Risk
Quality
Process
Tools
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13. OBTAINING LESSONS LEARNED
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14. OBTAINING LESSONS LEARNED - OVERVIEW
 Collecting data throughout
the project
 Preparing for the lessons
learned meeting
 Conducting the lessons
learned meeting
 Reducing post mortem
anxiety
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15. COLLECTING DATA THROUGHOUT THE PROJECT
 Periodic team meetings
 Status reports
 Issues tracking
 Your observation
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16. PREPARING FOR THE LESSONS LEARNED MEETING
Location
Date(s) and time(s)
Clear agenda
Participants
Invitation
Facilitator
Scribe
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17. PREPARING FOR THE LESSONS LEARNED MEETING
What was the most fulfilling aspect?
What was the most difficult problem?
How did you solve it?
What process or tool can we improve, and how?
Should we enter the STC competition? Explain.
How did it go with our SMEs?
Do you have a technique that improved results?
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18. CONDUCTING THE LESSONS LEARNED MEETING
 Set and follow your clear agenda
 Meeting goal
 Expected outcome
 Topics
 Time limits
 Start and end on time
 Emphasize the meeting goal and outcome
 Outline the meeting structure
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19. CONDUCTING THE LESSONS LEARNED MEETING
 Review ground rules
 One speaker at a time
 Staying on topic
 Allow everyone to contribute
 Maintain time limit
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20. REDUCING POST MORTEM ANXIETY
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21. REDUCING POST MORTEM ANXIETY
 Consider additional ground rules
 Keep it positive
 Be respectful
 Be constructive
 Use “I” statements
 Practice active listening
 Let the speaker finish
 Offer solutions and recommendations
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22. REDUCING POST MORTEM ANXIETY
 Intention is not to place blame
 Intention is to discover and
remember
 Keep the focus on solutions for
the future
 Continuous improvement
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23. REDUCING POST MORTEM ANXIETY
 Professional development
 Organizational growth
 Preventing a reinvention
of the wheel
 Instead, improving on the wheel
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24. REDUCING POST MORTEM ANXIETY
 Make the final question positive
 Summarize great results
 Speak to successful teaming
 Celebrate at meeting’s end
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25. REDUCING POST MORTEM ANXIETY
 Alternatives for difficult situations
 Meet one on one
 Meet in smaller groups where there’s more trust
 Submit questionnaires in writing
 Submit questionnaires anonymously
 Have only peers present in the meeting
 Don’t include names, titles, or other identifiers in
resulting report or knowledge base
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26. DOCUMENTING LESSONS LEARNED: OVERVIEW
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27. DOCUMENTING LESSONS LEARNED: OVERVIEW
 Processing the mass of information
 Recording the key take-aways
 Distributing lessons learned
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28. PROCESSING THE MASS OF INFORMATION
 The Simpler Report
 Project Overview
 The Lessons Learned
Process
 Successes and Strengths of
the Project
 Challenges and
Weaknesses of the Project
 Recommendations and
Solutions
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29. PROCESSING THE MASS OF INFORMATION
 More Detailed Report
 By phase
 By module
 By disciplines
 By constraint
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30. PROCESSING THE MASS OF INFORMATION
 Knowledge Base
 Spreadsheet or database
 Links to documents
 Collecting throughout the
project
 Collecting across multiple
projects
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31. RECORDING KEY TAKE-AWAYS
•What can and should
be repeated in the
future
Strengths •Recommendations
on improving
strengths
•Specifics of what
didn’t work well
Weaknesses •Avoid blame
•Focus on solutions
and risk avoidance
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32. RECORDING KEY TAKE-AWAYS
 Emphasize continuous
process improvement
 Recommend
root cause analysis
 Use keywords and
informational contact
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33. DISTRIBUTING LESSONS LEARNED
 Inclusion in the project
archives
 Team members
 Management
 Others in the organization
 Different versions for
different audiences
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34. USING PAST LESSONS LEARNED
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35. USING PAST LESSONS LEARNED
 Preventthe “filed and
forgotten” syndrome
 Lessonslearned are a
gold mine
 Solutionsare a leg up
for new projects
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36. USING PAST LESSONS LEARNED
 Make research of past
lessons learned a part
of every new project
startup
 Share with colleagues
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37. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
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38. TELL ME MORE
Have you had a particularly bad experience with a lessons
learned process?
Have you had a particularly good experience?
What do you like the best? The least?
What do you find most valuable about the lessons learned
process?
What elements of a lessons learned process do you prefer?
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39. REFERENCES
 Your Project Management
Coach
 Microsoft Project 2010
Inside Out
 Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)
 Projects In Practice blog:
www.projectsinpractice.com
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40. THANK YOU!
 teresa@stoverwriting.com
 www.stoverwriting.com
 www.projectsinpractice.com
 Teresa Stover on LinkedIn
 @stoverts on Twitter
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