Lessons · Project management · lessons learned
Lessons learned: written so the next project can use them
A lesson learned is a specific, actionable recommendation drawn from what went well or badly, collected throughout the project and filed where the next project manager will read it.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The next project makes the same vendor mistake because the last one's lesson said communicate better with vendors. A lesson that reads hold a weekly call with any vendor shipping a new model, from contract signature, would have been followed. Vague lessons are filed; specific ones are used.
How to think about it
Collect as you go, not only at the end, because by the end the beginning is forgotten. Ask three questions: what went well, what did not, what would we do differently. Write each answer as an instruction with a trigger. File it where the next charter is written.
Worked example
Collected in month 2: the vendor missed the first deliveryA note at the time, with the facts fresh.
Went badly: no contact between contract signature and the first shipmentThe cause, not just the event.
Do differently: a weekly call with any new-model vendor, from signature to first deliveryAn instruction with a trigger. Somebody can follow it.
Filed: in the project library, tagged procurement, linked from the charter templateWhere the next project starts, so it is read before it is needed.
Your turn
Write the test of a usable lesson.
A lesson is a specific the next project can follow.
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Holding one lessons-learned meeting on the last day. The team is tired, half have left, and the early mistakes are gone from memory. Collect through the project; the last meeting only confirms.