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Ever Jean A. Javillo

Editha Ention

Master in Management

Celebration And Reflection

Project Management

Dr. John Calamiong

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Lessons Learned Reports

Someone said,

Anyone can make a mistake, only a fool repeats it.

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Purpose:

The purpose of the Lessons Learned Report is to bring

together any lessons learned during the project that can be

usefully applied to other projects. At the close of the projectit is completed and prepared for dissemination. As a

minimum, lessons learned should be captured at the end of

each stage of the project; ideally a note should be made of

any good or bad point that arises in the use of the

management and specialist products and tools at the time.

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Fitness for purpose checklist:

Has every management control

has been examined?

Have all the reasons for all the

tolerance deviations and corrective

actions been recorded?

Is input to the lessons learned log

being done (as a minimum) at the

end of each stage?

Is there an analysis of the successof quality reviews and other types

of test used?

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Suggested contents (lessons learned)

The Lessons Learned Report

should contain:

Which management andquality processes:

A description of any

abnormal events causingdeviations from plans.

wentwell

went lacking

went badly

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WHAT WENT BADLY

When completing this section, you should dig deeper than just

describe what went badly. Ask (and answer) all the key questions:

Process Name (that went badly)

What exactly went wrong (provide a detailed narrative)

Why did it go wrong (your analysis)

Is it worth fixing? Cost/benefit analysis.

If so, how do we fix it? How do we stop it from happening again?

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WHAT WENT WELL

You may have notices Ive switched the order of these

three sections to put what went well at the end. Typically

I find managers want to know the bad news first - what

went wrong, what could hurt them, or who they should be

hurting. Plus its always nice to end on a positive

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WHAT WERE LACKING

Identify what processes were lacking.

Process Name (that was lacking)

What exactly was lacking?

Why is it lacking?

If missing, refer to standard or previous experience to justify its

inclusion

How do we put it in place?

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Here is your chance to document the events that had a direct and

tangible impact on your project plan, budget and timeline resulting in

a deviation from your initial agreed plan. The events are as varied as

they are random. Some examples could be unseasonal weather,

CEO shock retirement, market crash, power failure, virus attack oreven something as simple as a stock recall.

While listing your abnormal events, dont forget to address the

following considerations.

How did it impact your project? Time, cost, quality.

Why wasnt it considered as a risk and mitigated? How can it be avoided next time?

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An assessment of technical methods and

tools used.

Recommendations for future enhancement

or modification of the project management

method.

Useful measurements on how much effort

was required to create the various products.

Notes on effective and ineffective qualityreviews and other tests, including reasons

why they worked well or badly.

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Problems at theEnd of the Project

Behavioral Project Team

Fear of no more work

Staff seem to go slow

Loss of interest

Loss of team identity

Reassignment issue

Team gets raided

Client

Loss of interest

Change of key person

Technical Problems

Internal Identification of remaining deliverables

Outstanding commitments

Control of changes

Closure of work orders

Identification of project personnel

Client As above + audit trails

Seeking agreement

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Source information:

Observation and experience of the processes

Completed work packages

Comparisons of stage plans with what actually happened

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Notes:

The Lessons Learned Report should be viewed as information that can be

shared (although sometimes areas may have to be kept confidential) as

well as what would be valuable for future projects to the form of

recommendations on any enhancements or modifications. At the start of a

new project, previous Lessons Learned Reports should be reviewed to

consider how lessons learnt from previous projects could be applied to the

project.

The data in the report should be used by a corporate group, such as quality

assurance, who are responsible for the quality management system, inorder to refine, change and improve the standards. Measures of how much

effort was needed for products can help improve future estimating.

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Why it's useful

Lessons learned meetings are your best weapon for

implementing continuous improvement. These reviews giveeveryone a chance to freely discuss the good and bad

aspects of the project so that good practices are repeated

and bad practices are eliminated.

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How to use it

Lessons Learned meetings should be held at or near the end of a

project, and can also be useful at key interim points during

longer projects, such as after the planning phase in a major

project. The entire core team attends these reviews.

Key functional managers may sit in but should not impede theprocess.

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Cont..

Review project results by asking questions like did we do

what we said we would in terms of meeting cost, schedule,

and quality goals?

What were the cost issues, feature issues, schedule

issues?

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Process points:

Have the project manager prepare project overview materials before

the lessons learned meeting.

Make sure that all key cross-functional team members can attend the

scheduled meeting. Many project insights come from issues withinteraction between groups; a great deal of important knowledge can

be revealed if you have all the core team members at the meeting.

Start the meeting with a brief overview of the project schedule. What

were the planned completion dates for each phase of the project,and what really happened? Can the team identify and summarize

why a particular phase end date slipped?

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CONCLUSION

The success and failures of the project process, the technical

aspects and the managerial processes are examined by the project

team, by the customer and sponsors. The focus is on recommendingways to improve future project performance. Lessons learned are

best accumulated through the course of the project and provide

valuable team-building exercises.

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McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved

Thank you forlistening.

Closing Phase/Lessons Learned Reports