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  • Chapters
    • Introduction
    • The Stages of a Project
    • Chapter 1. Sponsorship and Leadership
    • Chapter 2. Defining the Objectives and Benefits
    • Chapter 3. Planning the Project
    • Chapter 4. Ensuring the Project is a Manageable Size
    • Chapter 5. Defining the Budget
    • Chapter 6. Managing the Risks
    • Chapter 7. Getting the Right Project Manager
    • Chapter 8. Getting Customer Representation
    • Chapter 9. Defining Roles & Responsibilities
    • Chapter 10. Getting the Right Resources
    • Chapter 11. Monitoring and Reporting Progress
    • Chapter 12. Communicating Progress
    • Chapter 13. Consultation and Leadership
    • Chapter 14. Getting Realistic User Requirements
    • Chapter 15. Defining Your Approach
    • Chapter 16. Conducting Structured Testing
    • Chapter 17. Creating an Implementation Plan
    • Chapter 18. Conducting a Post Implementation Review
    • Chapter 19. Realising the Benefits
    • Chapter 20. Learning the Lessons
    • Chapter 21. Celebrating Success
    • Checklist
  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • 21 Ways to Excel at Project Management

Learning the Lessons

Question 20: Have you looked at the lessons learned from your project?

Good Practice: Every project has the potential to help you run future projects more efficiently. Assess whether the project was a great success, a total failure or somewhere between the two. Concentrate on the big, important lessons from the project, the ones that will have a significant impact on your future projects.
A group of four business people planning on an office whiteboard

In his article Lessons Learned: Why Don't We Learn From Them? Derry Simmel identifies two common problems preventing us from learning valuable lessons from past projects:

  1. We think the lessons don't apply to us.
  2. We want to get things done.

The sad truth is that these lessons learned are useful. That time spent in doing the work better is time well spent. That getting it right the first time is cheaper and easier than doing it now and fixing it later.

Derry Simmel

History has a strange way of repeating itself. If we don't take time to learn our past lessons and act on them, we will repeatedly commit the same mistakes.

Common Mistakes

  • Being too busy to evaluate projects when they have finished.
  • Moving on to your next project before reviewing the last.
  • Failing to heed the lessons from past projects.
  • Not making lessons learned available to other people in your organisation.

Warning Sign: Making the same mistakes time and again.

Learning the Lessons

Question 20: Have you looked at the lessons learned from your project?

21
Celebrating Success

Question 21: Have you celebrated the success of your project?

Checklist

Use this checklist to drive your project success.

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