How do you structure you Lessons Learned?

Lessons Learnt as per me, are to be easily accessible, organization - wide appreciated and used on an ongoing basis, if the company is project based would have necessary filters such as discipline such as engineering, management, quality control, project reference, who initiated, who moderated, who approved and what action is suggested , root cause analysis, procedural requirements, resolved, closed etc. and is used for lessons learned workshops for newly awarded projects. There can be workshops with Client / Contractor wherein all participants contribute in synergy. Same can be used for risk management also.

I find that the best way to collect lessons learned is in a final project review meeting with as many of the team as possible. I used to call this the "Post Mortem" in a less politically correct age. My formula for running these meetings is:
- Start with celebrating success. We’re done! It is achieved! The project is finished and we got to the line!
- Brainstorm a list of what went well. Use the proper brainstorming technique to ensure everybody’s input is harnessed.
- Brainstorm a list of what did not go well. Position this as “What could we have done better?” Start off that list yourself with what you personally as project manager could have done better. That makes it safe for people to admit their own mistakes. You will end up with a big list.
- Shorten that list by asking “What SHOULD we have done better”.
- Then shorten that to “What WILL we do better next time?”
- Then commit to including these lessons in the Scope of the next similar project so that they become goals of that project - so they will get done.
I think templates are a great simple way to ensure this happens - enforce the use of templates for Scope and Goal documents by all project managers and make sure the Lessons Learned from previous Projects is a compulsory field.
The easiest way I think to ensure this is to make it easy for the PM so that they can access the historical Lessons Learned in the same place as they download the template.

I'm working on improving Lessons Learned in my company. Here's my current approach, which is a work in progress:

- At the end of each project phase, I send stakeholders a SharePoint survey, in which they evaluate phase-specific accomplishments and give general project feedback. The survey is anonymous.
- I summarize those results and share them at a core team meeting so that we can make any adjustments or improvements as the project progresses.
- At the end of the project, I send another anonymous survey through SharePoint. Participants evaluate the project as a whole and provide feedback.
- Next, I schedule a formal Lessons Learned meeting. I ask all of the participants to come with three successes and three areas of improvement.
- During that meeting, participants share those lessons and brainstorm others. A facilitator writes them on a whiteboard. Right now, the facilitator is the PM, but I'd like to try asking a PM who did not work on the project to lead the discussion.
- After the brainstorming and review are complete, I ask participants to get up and put marks by the three positives and negatives that they think were most important.
- The successes/improvements learned from that meeting are categorized, then summarized several places: a Lessons Learned document specific to the project, in the Project Close Report, and in a spreadsheet that is shared by all PMs.
- Once a month, in our larger team meeting, any PM who has closed a project shares the lessons learned with the rest of the group.

Hello Vincent,

The lessons learned are structured in an Excel file as follows:

- Project name;
- Date of registration;
- Knowledge area;
- Responsible / Author for registration;
- Description of the cause or reason;
- Description of the solution.

Lessons learned are filled as they occur and in team meeting.

Thank you!

I agree with the comment that it depends on the organisation.

However, if lesson learn is to be gathered from the inception till the end of the project.

Then the report can be structured to include project management knowledge areas as it applies to the specific project that is being reported.

I am getting started on a Project Management Lessons Learned program for my company. We currently use a system that is mandated by the government but it mostly relates to big picture practices like safety, systems, and contractor oversight. The system is used by multiple companies. We don't have anything that relates to the management of a project specifically. So when similar projects are performed there is no relatable information. Do you know of any templates or any program information I could reference to help me get started?

Vincent - The least complex method to capture your lessons learned is to reflect practices current in your organization.

If you have a highly visual organization using low technology information radiators - your opportunities should be in that format and captured equally visually and low tech. I like to set aside a highly accessible area where these postits/pictures/notes are captured and reviewed prior to the start of each project or iteration. Kinda fun.

If your organization isn't visual in this way and captures data ostensibly for analysis - it must be accessible in the same location as other project data and tagged with metadata. The medium application is not important with tagged data and will allow future analysis. It may require prior thought on what that meta data will be so you don't have to use sophisticated or costly data mining tools to differentiate between "Costing" and "budgeting" as an example. What ever you do - absolutely weigh the use of the data for the future and the cost of using that data in the future. No point in making it complicated!

I currently use Share Point to introduce lessons learned. Several different columns may be added - customized to fit your needs. I find this solution more convenient that excel files stored in a shared drive.

It also contributes in providing an environment for all team members and their lessons learned. Lessons learned are meant to be revisited during project life cycle but also before or during inititating another (similar) project, thus it is important that the information is readily available and easy to find.

I still need to learn a lot in this area,

We record lessons learnt in excel by knowledge areas Integration, scope, time etc. Each knowledge area has the three famous questions: What went well? What went wrong? and What can be improved or done in a different way? But than we have a column for adding any other details applicable. This exercise is done in an interactive session.