The company I work for is growing, and when we do projects, the knowledge is with a small pool of people. In order to capture learnings and to help with knowledge share, we are considering implementing a Lessons Learned Repository to save learnings from projects completed. Does any one use Lessons Learned repositories in their organisations? If so, is it effectively/ successfully utilised? do you think there is much value in having a department wide lessons learned repository? Saving Changes...
I do not believe there is value is a lessons learned repository, in the way I've seen it done - when there is a repository, it is an archive of hundreds of documents that nobody looks at. Here's the approach I take:
Rather than just gather lessons in a repository which makes it difficult for practitioners to get knowledge in real time, why not bake lessons directly into standards, procedures & templates?
Also, as many lessons are not "real" lessons, but rather are reminders or major organizational dysfunctions, tackle these appropriately rather than having them raised repeatedly without resolution.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Lessons learned repository proved to be a worthy investment for us and I highly recommend any organization to have one regardless of the size. Saving Changes...
Lessons learned database has high value for continuous improvement of the organization since people have access to the knowledge learned from past projects, allowing them to apply it on future similar projects, doing things better the next time. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
We have as a component of a knowledge management system. Worth it? Not at all if and only if you do not put them in the practice. Usually you can see that lessons learned are taking at the end of a project and are storage and forgotten. Lessons learned have value if you work with them in a similar way than retrospectives when you use an agile based method. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
It will only be useful, if you can search the repository for those lessons that are germane to your upcoming project.
Like Kiron, I prefer to bake the lesssons learned right into the organizational process assets: templates, checklists, samples and apps. Saving Changes...
Vijay SuryavanshiProject Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft SeatingPlantation, Fl, United States
Agree, with Veronicas comments completely. If you get into the habit of doing it for the sake of doing and documenting it in your organization, it does not help. Keeping recent failures or experiences in mind, lessons learned must be documented. The idea is to learn from it and get better and not repeat same mistakes. Saving Changes...
Lukasz JarochowskiTechnical Project Manager| Bottomline Technologies, Inc.Wylie, Tx, United States
Lot of good comments. I read Porter's article, and I recommend it.
One thing I'd like to point out is that Knowledge Management is its own craft with its own certs and business processes, and if an organization is wise enough to support KM properly, then those processes should pick up or directly interact with the project's creation of knowledge, including but not limited to, lessons learned. Some lessons are immediately actionable, as Porter describes, so those perhaps may not go into a KM repo and processes, but a lot of knowledge that projects create get orphaned when there is no proper KM business operation to do something with it. KM isn't merely a wiki or list of documents; it's much more, and I think that hits at the spirit of the OP Marius' question. Saving Changes...
Housam KremaCorporate Strategy Specialist | Libyana Mobile PhonesTripoli, Libya
NASA has developed very good approach in this regard, also they have created "Lessons Learned tool bar bot", the bot automatically proposes a set of lesson learnt that are relevant to a selected work item listed in your excel workbook
I highly recommend that you go through the following links and get more details
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