Kevin Feenan gave a presentation on lessons learned from projects. He discussed why lessons learned are important to build success, decrease errors, improve managing uncertainty, and help with organizational transformation. Some typical areas that need improvement included budgeting, change management, communication, governance, oversight, procurement, quality, risk management, and scheduling. Governance and operational procedures are often a symptom, not the underlying cause or disease. Common practices that happen after failures include deflecting blame, redefining success, and revisionist history rather than making meaningful changes to decrease bureaucracy, increase accountability, and improve communication. To fix these issues, organizations should establish cultural transformation teams, embrace failure as a strength, distinguish management from oversight, and keep lessons learned

1. Lessons Learned on
Lessons Learned
Kevin Feenan, MBA, PMP
President
Knomaze Corporation
Distributed Agile Worlds
Conference
January 25-26, 2018
http://dawsvcon.confcenter.org/dawsvcon2018/

2. Why do Lessons Learned
• Build a consistent pattern of successful outcomes
• Decrease undesirable consequences and error rates
• Improve capacity to manage uncertainty
• Develop innovation around ambiguity and change
• Retention of knowledge
• Minimization of technical debt
• Organizational transformation in
response to business need
© 2018 Kevin Feenan All Rights Reserved 2
Successful Projects Prioritize Time-Risk Rewards over Quality-Cost Benefits

3. Typical Areas for Improvement
• Budgeting
• Change Management
• Communication
• Governance
• Human Resources
• Integration
• Oversight
• Procurement
• Quality
• Risk Management
• Scheduling
© 2018 Kevin Feenan All Rights Reserved 3
Governance and Operational Procedures are often a Symptom not the Disease

4. What is Often Left Unsaid
• Accountability
• Agendas
• Competing Priorities
• Acceptance
• Culture
• Teaming
© 2018 Kevin Feenan All Rights Reserved 4
Constructive Dialogue, Honesty, and Positive Reinforcement

5. Common Practices
What Happens
• Duck and Cover
• Deflection
• Redefinition of Success
• Revisionist History
• Reassignment
• Independent Audit
What Doesn’t Happen
• Decreased Bureaucracy
• Willingness to Change
• Increased Accountability
• Communication
• Organizational Redesign
• Publication
© 2018 Kevin Feenan All Rights Reserved 5
Fear Of Change Is The Hardest Hurdle To Overcome.

6. How to Fix
• Establish Cultural Transformation Teams
• Failure is a Strength not a Weakness
• Responsibility is bottom up – Accountability is top down
• Distinguish between Management and Oversight
• Special Causes of Variation are not Special
© 2018 Kevin Feenan All Rights Reserved 6
Keep it Small, Simple, Transparent, and Measurable

7. Kevin Feenan, MBA, PMP
https://about.me/kevinfeenan
Knomaze Rockcliffe
Corporation University Consortium
http://knomaze.com http://urockcliffe.com
© 2018 Kevin Feenan all rights reserved
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