I've worked for a global organization running global projects as my university placement year. I am now conducting a theses on project management lessons learned and it's function within a project management lifecycle.
Would it be possible for you to share your thoughts and opinions on post project reviews, and the values you gain from conducting such a review?
Also, it would be extremely beneficial to provide me with materials. books / journals that you would advise for this particular topic area. From initial research, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the post project review subject, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
I know that there have been a few postings / threads on this subject matter, but there doesn't seem to be many books on the topic. Can anyone recommend any reading material please?
Many thanks in advance,
Thomas. Saving Changes...
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Tim EilerManager Beta Test and Market Launch| Xata CorporationPlymouth, Mn, United States
Don't forget that the systematic method for carrying forward the lessons learned from a project is every bit as important as the methods used to capture the lessons. Hope is, after all, not a management principle...too many companies collect lessons learned and then (implicitly) hope that everyone in the company who needs to use those lessons in the future first knows of the lessons and then uses them. Saving Changes...
Andrew MakarProgram Manager| AMAKAR LLCOakland Township, Mi, United States
I wrote an article about post mortems and the worthlessness of lessons learned unless they are incorporated in to the next project.
Elyse NielsenSenior Project Manager| Ascension Health Information ServicesHaines City, Fl, United States
Hi Thomas,
What a great question, Our team’s successes and learning opportunities can be shared with others. There is no reason in today’s economic reality, to allow corporations to repeatitively uncover the same leanings, thus continuing to reinvent the wheel. We need to take to the steps to share great practices among other teams, and to earmark those tactics which were not as successful as intended. Others can expand upon the greatness and view the unsuccessful tactics with a fresh pair of eyes. Practicing Lessons Learned assures your organization learns from other teams. A lessons learned practice is simply how to documented knowledge for continuous improvement. However, in order to fully utilize lessons learned, one needs to have key processes in the organization’s project management methodology.
Those key process points are:
Implement Lessons Learned Log – While in the execution phase, it is a good idea to have a lessons learned log. This log should comprise a couple of basic fields; the learning opportunity, recommend solutions, responsible party, and who submitted. The purpose of this log is to capture the knowledge throughout the project, not just at the very end. A good practice is to schedule the review as a part of the project status meeting on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. Once you have the project team updating the lessons learned log it is time to disseminate it to the organization. A common approach is to submit all lessons learned logs on the first of the month to the PMO office. The PMO office is then charged with sharing the information and updating other related documentation.
Craft Final Project Lessons Learned – During closure, one of the last activities will be to do a final lessons learned document. This document will be the culmination of the lessons learned log, business benefits realization, and post mortem. The entire project team needs to collaborate and create the lessons learned. When completed and signed off by the project team, this document should be submitted to the PMO Office. The PMO Office responsibilities are three-fold. First, the PMO will track when to request the realized business benefits. Additionally this office is accountable for updating the project management quality review check list. Finally, the PMO office should review and add the final project lessons learned document to the shared knowledge base within the organization. This document can then be referred to by anyone initiating a similar project.
Develop Quality Review Check List – A Quality Review Check List is a listing of items to consider for all facets and phases of a project. This document should be updated with all of the check up items from the lessons learned log and the final lessons learned. For example, let’s say you are about to complete and receive sign off for the needs analysis and about to engage in System Analysis. The checklist would provide common questions of items to what out for and best practices to follow. Common questions are if backup and recovery issues need to be address? Are the data migration plans completed? Has the education and training needs been reviewed? Once you have a check list in place, the PM and Sponsor should review this document near the end of each SDLC milestone gate.
Hopefully these points help, Good Luck in your pursuits!
Elyse
http://www.anticlue.net Saving Changes...
John HUGHESSenior Lecturer Project Management| UWBSTelford, United Kingdom
Thomas
Good question, and while there is some useful content in the various responses, Andrew's is perhaps the most relevant. Especially as so much activity is outsourced. While the individual may learn the lessons as they develop their experience the organisational learning may never take place. The lessons learned log should perhaps be retitled the lessons written down log - until the organisations start using them and include a requirement - perhaps at the Business Case phase- to demonstrate that the previous logs have been read and reflected upon. No surprise then that a major comment from the APM, about what PM courses teach, needs to include developing reflective practitioners.
One key to this development of reflective practice is communities of practice (CoP) like this but within an organisation.
Thomas:
You will find a great deal of discussion on this subject on gantthead.com.
I'd recommend you look for current trends on innovation in this area under: Project Retrospectives.
Hewlett Packard and other Fortune 500 companies have developed some mature processes in this area which has helped elevate their organizational and project management maturity.
