Before completing your project do you insist your team members to write down "Lessons learned" , how this will help you and them in future projects ?

Lessons learnt are to be updated whnever required, not jus before completing the project.

This task is an ongoing one and project team should ensure updating each and everything that they hvae come across during the project lifetime.

 

 

I agree with Ms.Tahseen's answer

 

According to PMBOK lessons learned is an important organizational process asset.

 

Lessons learned is a theory, or conclusion, based on evidence at a given time and describes what went wrong (as well as what went right) throughout the lifecycle of a project. Although it’s completed during the project closeout process, it should occur during the entire project lifecycle to ensure all information is captured and documented.

 

Consequences of not having a project review of lessons learned are the increased likelihood of repeating actions that might have caused:

 

• Project failures
• Budget overruns
• Scope creep
• Reduced quality from expectations
• Missed scheduled deadline

 

Lessons learned provide their greatest value when they are (a) documented, (b) communicated, ( c) archived, and (d) fluid and adaptable to allow evolved conclusions. Documentation of lessons learned should include naming the issue, a brief description of the problem or success, the impact on the project (e.g. time, cost, scope, quality, schedule), and the process improvement recommendations (lessons learned).

 

Next, it’s important to communicate these lessons to the project stakeholders. The stakeholders should be a part of the project review so it’s a logical step to communicate lessons learned to them. You should also archive and communicate this project’s lessons learned to all project managers either through the Project Management Office (PMO) or, in the absence of a PMO, previously approved means of Project Management collaboration and communication.

 

Finally, lessons learned needs to be open to the idea that alternative conclusions exist. Remember, our lessons learned are based on the best information available at the time of the conclusion. However, with time and experience, our knowledge and interpretation of the data might change.

 

I agree with Ms.Tahseen's answer as it is a on-going process, if it is not followed at least to insist before completion, so that rich experience gained in past can be useful in future projects for applying to the problems if face any. Obviously what ever we learned in past  we apply in future when we come across the need situation.  Thanks.

Learning lessons should be a continual process. 

 

What is often forgotten is to allow time and space to revise lessons learned in the past.  It's no good writing down how to do things better next time if you never read what you've written.

Noting down lessons learnt and discussing them is a daily practice for me. This helps to improve on the following days till the end of the said project. Waiting till about the end of the project would only help to improve on the future projects, whereas it would have greatly helped to improve on the present project if done daily.

Lessons learned are a very important artifact produced from a project, but only on one condition: your company has a repository for all the projects artifacts, where every project manager or any other member can return to when needed. Lessons learned will lose its purpose if such a repository doesn't exist, or at most it will be a personal thing without the benefit for the future projects or the coming phases in the project.

 

Some people thinks lessons learned are to submit the negatives, but the most important ones is the document and submit the positives and the new ways the project followed to overcome risks, issues and obstacles.

 

I have to disagree with some answers here where they say they discuss or review lessons learned on daily basis, which will be of no point. you don't discuss lessons learned on daily basis, but you can discuss issues on daily basis. For me, the end of each phase or milestone is the best time to submit and discuss the lessons learned by the project team.

Yes,but learning the lesson is far important than writting it down.You have to understand that every new project is different from the last one,but the difficulties and obstacles will be pretty similar. So once you know how to deal with the task,it will help you in the future projects. Coming to the next part as to why is it important? Always remeber "experience is the best teacher but she charges high fees" so it is better to have an experience in resolving an issue n this experience may be good or bad but it will surely help you to be more efficient in your future.i hope you are satisfied with the answer ms Nisreen Ahmad.

I agree with the expert answers. Thanks

The purpose of lessons learned is to bring together any insights gained during a project that can be usefully applied on future projects.

As earlier mentioned by other members, it should be done daily, weekly or monthly. If we don't take time to learn the lessons and moreover act upon them, we will continue to commit the same project management mistakes again and again. By incrementally capturing lessons learned and turning that hindsight into best practices you will achieve far greater long-term project success.

Everything learned from previous projects, whether they were successes or failures can teach a project employee important lessons. If lessons were genuinely learned from past projects then the same mistakes would not be repeated in future projects. Projects within an organization would then be more consistently delivered on time, within budget and to the customer's complete satisfaction. 

It will hepl us to grow because as a team they need thier own opinion so that we can make more better for the upcoming project.

Thank you for the invitation.

After a project or a major action completion, it's a demand to look back and analyse the facts. 

It's a huge help for next actions. It's a hand of help for any future similar condition to be prepared and to know how to face it fast and efficiently.

The "lessons learned" is a part of this process and improves your team's experience, future reactions and abilities. 

There is a sensitive line in this: You have to avoid the "noticing" thing during looking back. What is done is done. The only we have to do is to extract results for next time and make our team stronger, more liable and wiser.