Today we will discuss lessons learned and their importance in project management.
Every project is an opportunity to gain new experiences. This experience provides you with fresh insights that will be beneficial to future initiatives.
Lessons learned are part oforganizational process assets并协助项目管理团队和项目管理办公室（PMO）从以前的项目中获得见解。
Lessons learned help in:
- 避免错误
- Taking advantage of opportunities
- 提高项目质量
Let’s dive in.
Lessons Learned
Lessons learned are documented knowledge gained from previous projects in such a way so it can help future projects.
Lessons learned are collected throughout the project life cycle and contain all events, both positive and negative. The goal is to reuse the best practice and avoid the same mistakes in future projects.
Themanbet最新版defines the lessons learned process as a “collection of interconnected actions and activities undertaken to accomplish a specified set of goods, results, or services.”
经验教训的收集过程涉及五个步骤：
- Identify:列出评论和建议。这些可能是未来计划的重要信息来源。
- Document:记下文件中的所有信息，允许参与者对其发表评论，并突出对话期间所学的特定教训。
- Analyze:分析和安排使用的经验教训and shared with other teams. They could be used in training or to enhance project management processes.
- Store:Keep a copy of the lessons learned reports on a shared disk or in the cloud, so they are accessible to all project teams.
- Retrieve:You retrieve the lessons learned from the archive to be used for your current project.
Importance of Lessons Learned
经验教训是至关重要的三个原因：
- They help you learn from your mistakes to prevent issues in the future.
- They let you collect best practices or clever methods of doing tasks and pass on this information.
- They help your stakeholders and team members develop trust. Team involvement ensures support from all stakeholders.
You should clarify that this exercise is not to express personal rage.
On the other hand, you should welcome positive criticism, as the lessons learned exercise is about giving useful and constructive criticism to improve processes and avoid previous errors.
如何记录经验教训
There are several methods for collecting and documenting lessons learned. Some of these methods are listed below.
Post-Project Reviews
Most projects have post-project reviews. Here you evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Team members will benefit from an open and honest conversation about the project, and they can use this knowledge for their next project. The results can be shared with other project teams.
一对一会议
Meet one-on-one with your team members and ask them about their lessons learned. You may discover that team members are more willing to offer feedback with these personalized meetings, and you may collect some valuable ideas.
团队成员很高兴讨论小组环境中的项目成就，但犹豫不决。在私人谈话中，当个人不太关心其他人偷听他们的错时，他们会自由地讲话。
团队会议
您不应该等到项目结束，以编译项目的课程。使其定期分享并录制经验教训。询问本周哪些团队成员在开放的环境中学到的东西。记下它。
You may not get information worthy of recording in every meeting, but the process creates an environment where team members feel encouraged in sharing their lessons learned.
Wiki’s/ Software
Encourage your PMO to create a wiki for lessons learned if it does not exist. They’re simple to develop and allow all team members to contribute here. Keep the wiki updated throughout the project lifecycle. You may also include copies of documents such as your post-project review minutes.
This makes a wiki a useful learning resource.
Lunch Sessions
Team meetings help only team members, but lunch sessions have a larger audience.
您在午餐期间进行这些会议，并让您组织中其他项目的团队成员加入。这有助于分享不同团队的知识。
Lunch sessions are informal meetings.
When to Document Lessons Learned
您应该在整个过程中记录经验教训项目生命周期.
捕捉经验教训是一个连续的过程。您应该鼓励团队成员在可能的情况下开放和分享经验教训。他们不应该等待任何特定的时间；他们应该在学习课程后立即记录课程。
Team members often don’t report negative events. You should emphasize documenting negative lessons learned, as we may repeat the same mistakes if we do not learn from them.
After collecting lessons learned, you should analyze and modify them before archiving. You can add a summary of lessons learned in a few phrases. The summary can include information on the lesson learned, its importance, and how it can be helpful for future projects.
The lessons should have searchable keywords linked to them in the shared drive or wiki, such as “testing” or “specifications.” This will help searchers find the lessons learned related to particular terms quickly.
经验丰富的报告
At the end of the project, you will prepare a report containing lessons learned with additional feedback and ideas from team members who could not contribute earlier. Send this report to all stakeholders to provide their comments.
收到他们的评论后，您将对其进行编译，然后完成的课程完成。
The lessons learned report includes:
- Summary:a one-page summary of the results with recommendations.
- Executive Report:对所学的经验教训的审查，包括对与错，以及如何改善流程。
- 发现：a summary of problems discovered throughout the evaluation.
- 建议：将来要采取的措施避免负面事件并实现机会。
Depending on the audience, the project manager will deliver either the thorough report or the executive report. You can use newsletters, presentations, white papers, and other kinds of communication to share the lessons learned to project stakeholders.
How to Use Lessons Learned
In most cases, the project manager conducts review meetings and presents lessons learned.
To effectively use lessons learned, your team should have access to this document while developing the project management plan.
所学的经验教训应该来自类似的项目或类似的过程，因此团队成员可以轻松合作并采取预防措施以避免犯错误。
Things to Consider from Lessons Learned
进展顺利？（积极经验）
If you don’t look at what went well, you may ignore using these proven strategies to realize opportunities in future projects.
What Did Not Go Well? (Negative Experiences)
Learning from the mistakes becomes an essential aspect. Ignoring what went wrong ensures that you will repeat the same mistake.
预期的项目活动是什么？
Look at the anticipated project events and evaluate how they occurred. Learning takes place during and after each project. The most effective method is to host a meeting to discuss the lessons learned throughout the project lifecycle.
是项目Milestones Met? If Not, Why?
Project milestones是重要的事件,他们应该能够实现吗on time. You must review if the project milestones were achieved on time. If not, what were the reasons so you can take preventive action and keep it from occurring in your next project?
Lessons Learned Experiences
When preparing for a project review, you must approach it with the right attitude. Keep the following points in mind.
Don’t Get Caught up in Past Mistakes:You could be obsessing about a past project issue, such as a disagreement with a stakeholder or a task you failed to complete. While this can be reasonable, it is unproductive. Accept whatever unpleasant things have happened and concentrate on what you have learned.
利益相关者总是批评:即使是最好的项目经理也受到批评。这是因为项目在组织内部不断受到反对和辩论。结果，其他人将指出您应该做的不同。他们不会为您出色的事情称赞您。
Be Willing to Learn:接受您可能并不总是有最大的解决方案。某些项目活动可以更好地计划或更有效地进行。如果您愿意学习，您将有所改善。
经验教训的例子
The goal of the lessons learned process is to learn from mistakes and achievements.
The following are few examples of lessons learned.
为项目经理学到的教训
- Lack of Support:如果您的团队认为您在与客户有关的问题上可能会更加支持，那么您应该使自己更加可用并领导。
- Lack of Communication:Some issues might arise because of your lack of communication. Be proactive and ensure that all stakeholders are well communicated and informed.
Lessons Learned for the Team
- 缺乏团队精神：这种现象对于新成立的团队很常见。计划非正式聚会将帮助团队成员互相了解，从而解决这个问题。
- Knowledge Sharing:When junior team members do not receive support from seniors, knowledge sharing becomes an issue. The problem can be solved by designating senior team members to mentor new team members.
- A Lack of Specialized Knowledge:Assume you’re working on an IT project in the oil and gas sector but don’t have any experts from the industry. Communicate with your organization to provide subject matter experts to support and help solve this issue.
为公司学到的教训
- 缺乏组织一致性：Every department has its own goals; they don’t appear to be aligned with each other. This lack of alignment should be addressed from the top level.
- Weak Organization Culture:Any difficulties generated by a weak corporate culture, such as one that criticizes and instills fear in employees. Management must support an environment that fosters an atmosphere where team members can take responsibility without fear.
- Corporate Travel Policy:A corporation’s travel policy may be very restrictive. Such limitations might make an already difficult and unpleasant work trip even more difficult. Loosen such tight policies.
经验教训的模板
在没有定义的文档程序的情况下，很难跟踪经验教训并进行改进。从开启会议开始，建立一个程序。记录在整个项目的寿命中获得的课程将阻止员工忘记他们所学到的知识。
PROJECT MANAGEMENT LESSONS LEARNED
Summary
Lessons learned in project management is an effective approach for generating knowledge from experience. However, collecting lessons learned is not as easy as it seems because no one likes to pinpoint their faults and let others advise how they could have done it better.
Taking a critical review is vital for effective lessons learned in project management. Therefore, it is your responsibility as a project manager to build confidence in your team members so they can speak their minds freely. Also, make sure that no one blames other team members for any past errors.
How are lessons learned collected in your project? Please share your experiences through the comments section.
