I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people voice
their frustrations about how badly their IT project management processes suck
because every project is just as painful as the last. It makes you want to grab
project managers by the shoulders and say,
“Dude, if you want your next project to go more smoothly,
you actually have to DO Lessons Learned exercise. You know that, right?”
Not sure how to go about doing Lessons Learned the right way
for your project? No worries, I’m here to help you. A few weeks ago, I came
across a great article called, “IT - Professional Services Automation” that does an excellent job of laying out the basic for IT - Professional Services Automation.
Improving as we do
things: You don’t need to wait for the project to end to have the Lessons
Learned meetings. Meetings organized as the project progresses can bring
fabulous ideas that help the ongoing project. If you’re doing things
thoroughly, each status meeting should include a brief section for “the good,
the bad, and the ugly”— asking your team members what’s working and what isn’t.
And keep track of all that information as you go so you don’t forget. Lessons
Learned is about always improving and finding better, more efficient ways to
accomplish things.
I also highly recommend applying Lessons Learned feedback
directly to your IT project template if it makes sense to do so. That way, your
template will be saved and ready to do things better next time you do that kind
of project.
Bottom line, Lessons Learned is really the best way to
figure out how to do your projects (especially the repeatable kind) better,
consistently. If you don’t do it, well, then you’re probably insane.
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