Presented by Bill Dow, PMP...why project’s fail and it really doesn’t matter. If project managers don’t see value, in collecting Lessons Learned information, they won’t do

Capturing Lessons Learned Information – Making your current and future projects smarter!

Presented by Bill Dow, PMP© Copyright 2017 – B Dow, B Taylor

Bill Dow, PMP

• 26 years in information technology• 24 in Project Management• 9+ years at Microsoft, 11 years running large PMOs across Microsoft, Cingular, AT&T• 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”

Several articles on Projecttimes.com

1. Report on Lessons Learned at Project Kick-off

2. Collect Lessons Learned throughout life of project

3. Review Lessons Learned information from past projects

4. Show discretion in capturing Lessons Learned information

5. Reporting Lessons Learned information at the end of the Project

Today’s project manager’s do not track Lesson’s Learned information on their project’s.

We can show project managers survey after survey on why project’s fail and it really doesn’t matter. If project managers 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!

Why is that? Why do project managers not collect Lessons Learned information on their projects?

What do we do about it? Who owns that problem? The PM? The PMO? The PM’s boss?

I am here today to tell you that it the project manager’s problem.


Think about that!!!!


Who is the first person the customer looks at when there is a problem?


Who???



The Project Manager!!!

What are some of the main reasons why project managers don’t take the time and collect Lessons Learned Information?

◦ Lack of time

◦ Don’t care, it will never happen to them

◦ Lack of management support

◦ Lack of resources

◦ Lack of guidelines – don’t know how?

◦ Lack of centralized knowledge base to store information

◦ Why? It is never going to be used again


Some of these reasons seem valid, and that’s really the problem we are seeing across project management today! Because they seem valid, project managers think they are valid! That’s a problem!

I believe the fundamental reason that project managers don’t collect Lessons Learned information, is they don’t value the information!

They don’t believe their project will fail, or they do believe that they are better than the other project mangers, and they won’t make the same mistakes!


That is a big problem!


Capturing & Using Lesson’s Learned Information on your projects.

Best Practice # 1 – Report on Lessons Learned information at the project kick-off!


At the project kick-off meeting, review Lessons Learned information from past or similar projects.

Spend some time, may a couple slides going over Lessons Learned information.

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!


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?


Agenda Item

Description Owner / Responsible

1 Review Lessons Learned Information Project Manager

2 Review Project Charter Project Manager

3 Review Project Scope Project Manager

4 Review Project Resources Project Manager

5 Review Project Timelines Project Manager

6 Review Project Risks & Issues Project Manager

7 Obtain Project Sign-offs & Approvals Project Manager

8 Walk-ons All Team

“How did reporting go? How did the team communicate? Special needs of the customer?

Project Name: Jones Construction Project:

Scope:

◦ There were several change requests on the project scope. Project team continued to have to review the impacts of each CR which took them away from executing the project.

Time:

◦ Project team hit every major deliverable on time.

Resources:

◦ Project team had a huge turn-over of project resources. Highly leverage vendor staff for effort. ** AREA TO WATCH?? **

For example, on one large project, I had a customer that wanted a status report every Thursday delivered to them in person. I had to go over every inch of that report. The project colors, budget, risks, issues, resources.

Another example, I had a customer that wanted a .mpp(Microsoft Project) file sent to them EOD Friday’s.

Knowing this information from the project kick-off, will help the project team be much better prepared.



There are thousands of these kinds of examples!!!

Reviewing past projects experiences will only help set expectations from the very beginning and set you up to run a successful project.

Spend the time, go over Lessons Learned information from past projects which will give you the best chance of success!

Failing to review Lessons Learned information, could have you making the same mistakes!


Best Practice # 2 – Collecting Lessons Learned information throughout the life of your project!


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….


How do you do that? How do you collect Lessons Learned information throughout the life of your project?

You start from the first status meeting and you ask your team “What is going well?” & “Where are we struggling?”….

Are we doing ok? Is the project on time? On budget?


Those words don’t have to be exact!


But the one thing you don’t do…..



Don’t tell your team you are collecting Lessons Learned Information! – Just do it!

If you say the word “Lessons Learned”, it will quickly devalue the process and you won’t get anything out of your team members!

So, you have to be a bit tricky, and you have to “collect”the Lessons Learned information, without them knowing it.

It is actually pretty easy…


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


“What is going well?” & “Where are we struggling?” “How are things going?...etc.”

Incorporating your Lessons Learned information directly into your weekly status agenda, will help you drive a successful project.

Especially, if you need to do any course corrections, any adjustments of staff, process changes…etc.

Just remember, don’t call it “Lesson’s Learned”, capture it more discreetly, and you have a much easier time.


When capturing your Lessons Learned, don’t make the process too complex, create yourself a document or spreadsheet and start creating your big bucket categories:

Budget:1. What went right?

2. What went wrong?

3. What could have been better?


Schedule:1. What went right?

2. What went wrong?


Keep creating the project categories and capture these three answers for every category? Resources, Communications…etc.

Development Methodology


Initiating

Planning

Executing & Control

ClosingCollect

LessonsLearned

Information

Collect

LessonsLearned

Information

Project Name: ________________ Project Manager Name: _________________

Project Area: What is going right?

What is not going well?

What could be better?

Notes:

Scope

Time

Budget

Resources

KPI’s

Communications

Risks & Issues

Project Quality

Team Performance


Using a simple and easy form like this will help you collect lessons learned information during your project.

It does not have to be complex, it does not have to take a lot of time to complete, you just have to do it!

Collecting Lessons Learned information during your project status meeting, will allow you to hear first hand how the project is executing directly from your team members.


Best Practice # 3 – Review Project Lessons Learned information from past projects


One of the biggest mistakes project managers make, is to stop learning and trying to improve their project management skills!

Once a project manger gives up and stops wanting to learn, their project’s will suffer.

One of the best ways to learn, is to review what other project managers have done. Review the other project manager’s projects and determine if there is anything you take leverage for your project.


There are large projects going on in every company.

Sometimes they have hired guns running these large efforts, and other times it is senior level employees.

The bigger the projects are, the more experienced the project manager tends to be.

The more experienced the PM, the more you can learn from them!


How do you do that? How do you learn from the hired guns?

Start reviewing their projects. Look at how they are managing their projects and take those key learnings and apply to your project.

Focus your research on the real tactical aspects of the project.


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?

Other big buckets of project information.. Risks/Issues…etc.


When reviewing the various aspects of the project look for the following three areas:

1. What went right?

2. What went wrong?


Across project schedules, project communications, budgets, project resources, look to answer these three questions across the critical project areas.


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 review past information where you can.


Best Practice # 4 – Show discretion in capturing Lessons Learned information!


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!


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.



Project Area: What is going right? What is not going well? What could be better? Notes:

Scope Al keeps changing the scope!

Time Project keeps missing dates

Budget We have hit each majorbudget milestone.

Resources Bob delivers late all the time. Mary is causing huge project problems.

We can’t keep staffing our project with vendors.

There was no FTE budget for the project.

KPI’s

Communications Jeff is a horrible communicator! He won’t email, he won’t have 1:1’s.

Risks & Issues Weekly tracking of project risks has been helpful

Project Quality

Team Performance


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!


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.


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.


Best Practice # 5 – Reporting Lessons Learned information at the end of the project!


One of the last items project managers complete in shutting down a project is to hold the Lessons Learned review meeting.

However, most project managers make the mistake of letting the project getting close to finishing, then start asking the team members for their Lessons Learned information.

That is a huge mistake!!


Development Methodology


Initiating

Planning

Executing & Control

ClosingCollect

LessonsLearned

Information

Collect

LessonsLearned

Information

Remember this process??

This process is going to have you capturing Lessons Learned information throughout the life of the project.

At the end of that process, you are going to have a huge table of information that you captured throughout the project!

If you don’t follow this process, you are going to be running around trying to collect this information from team members who could be long gone!


Don’t fall into that trap!


Project Area: What is going right? What is not going well? What could be better? Notes:

Scope Al keeps changing the scope!

Time Project keeps missing dates

Budget We have hit each majorbudget milestone.

Resources Bob delivers late all the time. Mary is causing huge project problems.

We can’t keep staffing our project with vendors.

There was no FTE budget for the project.

KPI’s

Communications Jeff is a horrible communicator!

Risks & Issues Weekly tracking of project risks has been helpful

Project Quality

Team Performance


Following the process of collecting Lessons Learned information throughout the project is critical in ensuring you have not missed information along the way!

If you ever tried getting information from team members who have long left the project, it is never going to happen! You have lost that time, and you will never get it back!

Compiling the information can be challenging to bubble up into a report but, at least you have the information. Look for trends and patterns and report that information in your Lessons Learned review meeting!


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

For Additional Information:

Check out my book “Project Management Communication Tools”

Find any of Bill’s books on Amazon today:

1. “The PMO Lifecycle – Building, Running, and Shutting Down 2017” 2. “Project Management Communication Tools” Published 2015”3. “The Tactical Guide for Building a PMO” Published 20124. “The Project Management Communications Bible” Published 2008

Bill Dow’s Contact Information:

http://www.dowpublshlingllc.com where I have PM & PMO Videos & Training. All Free!

I also have a video blog at http://www.blog.billdowpmp.com

Email: [email protected]

Social Networks:

• Twitter: @dowpublishing @billdow• LinkedIn: Bill Dow, PMP• Facebook: Dowpublishingllc

http://www.dowpublshlingllc.com/

http://www.blog.dowpublishingllc.com/

mailto:[email protected]

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Presented by Bill Dow, PMP...why project’s fail and it really doesn’t matter. If project managers don’t see value, in collecting Lessons Learned information, they won’t do