Lessons learned from past projects are tools you can use as a project manager to drive improvement within your team. We’ve compiled expert advice on how to collect, document, and apply lessons learned toward future endeavors.
The term lessons learned refers to the experience you gain by participating in and completing a project. A team should apply past lessons learned at the beginning of a new venture and compile new findings during and after its completion.
While it is essential to collect lessons learned at the end of a project, it might be beneficial to gather input while in the middle of one as well.
To find out about free project management lessons learned templates for project managers, product managers, project coordinators, moderators, project sponsors, and more, refer to our Free Project Management Lessons Learned Templates article.
The purpose of documenting and applying the lessons learned is to encourage improvement in best practices for future projects. The goal is to create a team that learns from its missteps and repeats and improves its successes.
Patti Armanini is a Quality Manager with Festo USA and has more than a decade of experience in management. She encourages project managers to “review past lessons learned to avoid making similar mistakes the next time around. But [it is] just as important to leverage the wins going forward, to help streamline the project, and to help remove impediments before they happen.”
A successful project manager recognizes the processes that help and hinder a team. They can also implement the lessons they have learned to improve those processes continually.
Seek input on lessons learned from everyone involved in a project. Team members at all levels within the hierarchy have essential contributions to the discussion, and it is wise to gather as much information from as many people as possible. This process can even be a team-building experience in itself, as everyone makes themselves heard.
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The Project Management Institute (PMI) outlines its Lessons Learned Process in Project Management in five steps.
A lessons learned document is the collected results of surveys and team member input throughout the lifecycle of a project. Create a process for gathering input at key points throughout the project, then record and use it to create detailed reports.
It is important to record these initial observations, so you can access them later. This document contains the raw data you will use to write your reports.
A project manager is responsible for documenting and identifying lessons learned throughout the lifecycle of a task or project. A successful project manager will utilize the following strategies:
You and future teams will use this feedback to learn from your experience. It is important to create processes that streamline the capture and sharing of this information.
A great way to capture lessons learned is by surveying the people working on and observing the project. You might find that you can extract more diverse responses by administering a survey during a project instead of only after it ends.
One benefit of a midproject survey is that you can identify and correct issues before they become a real problem. Armanini helped create this sample of a midproject survey for project managers:
Another excellent way to capture comments from the team is to hold lessons learned meetings, sometimes called a post-mortem. For more information about post-mortems, read our guide to running a post-mortem and download free post-mortem templates.
Lessons learned meetings can occur at any point during a project. During the meeting, your team should share feedback about what went well and what needs improvement. These meetings are also an effective team-building activity, as they are more collaborative than conducting individual surveys.
Your lessons learned meetings should all follow a similar format and usually begin with a stated agenda. Let your team know what you will cover and what you expect them to contribute. Next, encourage a robust group discussion of the lessons learned during the project, and make sure that you have assigned someone to take the minutes. This discussion should include a critical evaluation of the lessons learned and a plan for how to utilize them in future projects.
One of the most critical steps in applying lessons learned is creating lessons learned reports. The purpose of writing a lessons learned report is to consolidate the input from your team and present it to an audience in a concise and legible way.
When writing a report, consider the following:
Download Completed Lessons Learned Sample Report
You can use the above sample lessons learned report to display the conclusions from your surveys and meetings, as well as your own observations as a project manager. Download the completed version and use it for reference. You can also edit and customize it based on information that is important to your audience.
Download Blank Lessons Learned Template
Download a blank version of the template for your needs.
The best way to share your findings is to create specific reports for varying engagement levels. The goal of creating a lessons learned report is to distribute your group’s findings among a targeted audience.
Every completed project provides experience to the people working on it, whether or not it was a success. These lessons can be universal or specific to the task. Below are examples of lessons learned for different levels in an organization.
Examples of Lessons Learned for Project Managers:
Examples of Lessons Learned for Team Members:
Examples of Lessons Learned for Company Leadership:
Organizations that capture and utilize lessons learned from past projects can more easily avoid mistakes, repeat their successes, and minimize risks on future work. Project managers play an integral role in this process and enable their teams to thrive.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about half of all new businesses fail in the first five years. A company that commits to documenting and improving its processes stands a much better chance of survival than one that does not. Hiring and retaining stellar project managers ensures that these processes will continuously improve.
By identifying lessons learned, you can capitalize on your successes and take note of your mistakes. Additional benefits of lessons learned in project management include the following:
When you implement lessons learned processes with your team, you will likely run across some challenges. Here are some examples of challenges that project managers face:
The most crucial step in applying lessons learned to future projects is identifying those lessons in the first place. Create a system of surveying and collaborating on input with your team, and make sure that you record these responses so that you can access them later. Organize it by team, by task, or by the system most pertinent to you.
Establish timely check-ins with your team members. Hold informal gatherings in between formal meetings, and create a system of collecting weekly or monthly feedback, depending on the scope of your project. You can use these evaluations to check against past lessons learned and to identify new ones as they arise.
Don’t be afraid to implement lessons learned within the same project, rather than waiting until the next one. In fact, one sign of an effective project manager is knowing when you need to nudge a process in a different direction. Use the collected lessons from your institution to guide your team to success.
It is vital to consider the best practices for your unique team. Some universal best practices when it comes to lessons learned in project management are as follows:
In a perfect world, you will have the opportunity to conduct lessons learned meetings and surveys in person. But when all or part of a team works from home, you might have additional considerations.
“It’s easy to get complacent when not working in a structured office environment. Not just the clothes, but also losing interest during meetings because it’s online and not in-person. But since I work in a production environment in an essential industry, we were not completely shut down for long. I’ve been back in the office full time since mid-January. Engineers, purchasing, and the like still mostly work from home,” says Armanini.
“We turned meeting rooms into large break rooms with few tables for better spacing, and rotated break times to keep fewer team members on break at the same time.” She suggests staying flexible for meeting schedules and survey deadlines when possible to accommodate both groups.
Read our “Experts Hacks and Tips for Working at Home” to learn more about flourishing in an at-home work environment.
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