Capturing Lessons learned Information - Making your current and future project smarter.
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The document discusses the importance of capturing lessons learned in project management to enhance current and future projects, emphasizing that project managers have a key responsibility in this process. It outlines best practices such as collecting lessons learned from project kick-offs, throughout the project lifecycle, and reviewing past project information for better success. Additionally, it highlights the need for discretion in handling sensitive information and suggests incorporating lessons learned into regular project meetings to drive improvements.
Capturing Lessons learned Information - Making your current and future project smarter.
- 1. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects smarter! Presented by Bill Dow, PMP © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 2. Bill Dow, PMP • 26 years in information technology • 24 in Project Management • 9+ years at Microsoft, 11 running large PMOs • Instructor of Project Management, currently teaching at Bellevue College, and has taught in other Colleges in British Columbia & Ontario, Canada • Strong passion for Project Management, PMO’s & Project Management Methodologies. • Author of three Project Management books and articles. Author of “The Tactical Guide for Building a PMO” Co-Author of “Project Management Communication Tools” & “Project Management Communications Bible” © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 3. 1. Collect Lessons Learned at Project Kick-off 2. Collect Lessons Learned throughout life of project 3. Review Past Project Information 4. Show discretion in what you are capturing © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 4. Today’s project manager’s do not track Lesson’s learned information for their project’s. We can show PM’s survey after survey on why project’s fail and it really doesn’t matter. If project manager’s don’t see value, in collecting Lessons learned information, they won’t do it. It may be a bold statement, but sadly it is true! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 5. So what are we going to do about it? Who’s problem is it anyway? Is it the Project Manager’s problem? Is it the PMO Manager’s problem? What about the functional manager’s? I am here today to tell you that it the project manager’s problem. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 6. Think about that!!!! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 7. Who is the first person the customer looks at when there is a problem? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 8. Who??? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 9. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! The Project Manager!!! It happens every time! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 10. So, if it is the project manager’s problem, then I think it is safe to say the project managers must do whatever he or she can to fix that problem. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 11. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Would you agree? © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 12. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor Capturing & Using Lesson’s Learned Information on your projects.
- 13. Best Practice # 1 – Collect Lessons Learned information from the project kick-off! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 14. From the project kick-off meeting, review lessons learned information from past projects. Spend some time, may a couple slides going over lessons learned information from past but similar projects. The caveat to those discussions – It shouldn’t take to long, and make the conversations meaningful. This is not a check box activity, don’t treat it that way! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 15. What do I mean by that? Look at some of the challenges the projects had around communicating information, running the project, or dealing with stakeholders…etc. One of the areas important to cover is looking at how past projects communicated project information. Where did they struggle, what went well? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 16. Knowing this information from the project kick-off, will help the project team be much better prepared. For example, on one large project, I had a customer that wanted a status report every Thursday in person. I had to go over every inch of that report. Our colors, our budgets, our risks & issues everything. Another example, I had a customer that wanted a .mpp (Microsoft Project) file sent to them EOD Friday’s. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 17. Sharing past projects experiences will only help set expectations from the very beginning and help everyone be project successful. Spend the time, go over lessons learned information from past projects and give you and your project team the best chance of landing a successful project. Failing to review past project information, could have you making the same mistakes. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 18. Best Practice # 2 – Collecting Lessons Learned information throughout the life of your project! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 19. Starting from the first project status meeting and continue that process throughout the project. Collecting Lesson’s Learned information from the beginning allows you to make course correction along the way. Many project manager’s miss this step – PM’s lose the ability to see patterns and change things up along the way! i.e. Bob always late on his deliverables…. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 20. How do you do that? How do you collect Lessons Learned along the life of your project. Easy really, you start from the first status meeting and you ask your team “What is going well?” & “Where are we struggling?”…. Those words don’t have to be exact, but the one thing you don’t do….. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 21. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! Don’t tell your team you are collecting Lessons Learned Information! – Just do it! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 22. If you say the word “Lessons Learned”, it will quickly throw the team off and they quickly devalue what you are doing. So, you have to be a bit tricky here, and you have to “collect” the lessons Learned information, without them knowing it. It is actually pretty easy… Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 23. Agenda Item Description Owner / Responsible 1 Review Last week’s Minutes Project Manager 2 Review Current Action items All Team 3 Review Project Schedule All Team 4 Major Area Updates All Team Leads 5 Review Current Budget information Project Manager 6 Project Risks All Team 7 Project Issues All Team 8 Lessons Learned Information All Team 9 Walk-ons All Team Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! “What is going well?” & “Where are we struggling?” “How are things going?...etc.” © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 24. Incorporating your lessons learned information directly into your weekly status agenda, will help you tremendously in driving your project. Especially, if you need to do any course corrections, any adjustments of staff, process changes. Just remember, don’t call it “lesson’s learned”, capture it more discreetly, and you have a much easier time. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 25. Best Practice # 3 – Review Past Project Lessons learned information. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 26. One of the biggest mistakes project managers can do is not continuing to learn their craft. Once a project manger gives up and stops wanting to learn and get better, their project’s tend to suffer. One of the ways to continue to learn, is to review past project information and determine if your projects would benefit from some of this practices. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 27. How do you do that? Start reviewing lessons learned information from past projects or other projects in your organization and take some of the key learnings from those projects and apply to your project. Focus your research on some of the Nitty-Gritty information. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 28. Nitty-Gritty information includes: Project Budget information. How was budget managed, what reports were built, what dashboards? How was it tracked? Project Schedules? What reports? Did customers want to see the timeline or did they like the Gantt chart? Project Resources… What resource reports did the stakeholders what to see? Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 29. Some companies have centralized databases, or standard SharePoint sites where lessons learned data is stored for you to review. It seems like today, those repositories are harder and harder to find, but when you do find them, the wealth of data you find is priceless. Spend the time and find those repositories and review past information where you can. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 30. Best Practice # 4 – Show discretion in capturing Lessons Learned information! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 31. Collecting lessons learned information throughout the life of the project requires discretion. This is not information that in most cases can be shared. It is just for you! Project Managers are going to have to be discreet in what information can and can not be shared. Sharing information that should not be shared, can quickly turn into the team members not trusting you. That’s the worst place you can be in! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 32. Collect your lesson’s learned information offline in a folder or a document that is not sharable. Offline hard drives, secured folders on SharePoint, but where ever you collect the data, use security and discretion whenever possible. Sharing “Bob is always late in his deliverables” or “Mary is the worst employee ever” is not going to help anyone if the information gets out. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 33. This is the type of information you will hear from your team members. But what do you do with that information? Is it helpful for project managers to hear one employee complain about another? No, not if there is no trend! Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 34. If there is a trend, watch that trend, not too long, but don’t rush it, make sure you are seeing the same thing you are hearing and then react! Make sure you don’t react too quickly! Reacting too quickly, could hurt your reputation with all your team members. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 35. Watching and listening to your project team members is a critical way of staying connected to your team. Project managers must spend the time and listen, but don’t react immediately. Building bonds and understanding your team members will give you the best chance of delivering a successful project. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 36. Lessons Learned information is critical to start capturing from the very beginning and all throughout the life of the project. Adding Lessons Learned to your weekly agenda provides that constant reminder to capture this valuable information. Look for trends, and continue to look for areas of improvement on your project. Course correction throughout your project gives you your best chance of success. Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects Smarter! - Summary © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 37. For Additional Information: © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor Check out my book “Project Management Communication Tools”
- 38. Thanks for your Time! Find Bill’s books on Amazon today: 1. “Project Management Communication Tools” Published 2015” 2. “The Tactical Guide for Building a PMO” Published 2012 3. “The Project Management Communications Bible” Published 2008 Bill Dow’s Contact Information: http://www.dowpublshlingllc.com Email: billdow@dowpublishingllc.com Social Networks: • Twitter: @dowpublishing @billdow • LinkedIn: Bill Dow, PMP • Facebook: Dowpublishingllc
- 39. © Copyright 2015 – B Dow, B Taylor
- 40. Content for presentation taken from Project Management Communication Tools