Project Lessons Learned Meeting

Overview

The purpose of a Lessons Learned meeting, also known as an after-action review, postmortem, or retrospective, is to identify what was learned during the project/program. The lessons learned are derived by uncovering what the stakeholders believe was done well and what could have been done better.

Many organizations skip this step of a project because everyone is too busy; however, in the long run the organization wastes more time and money by repeating mistakes than by holding a short lessons learned meeting after each project, or for larger projects each phase/milestone.

In this article:

• When to run a Lessons Learned Meeting
• Who Attends a Lessons Learned Meeting
• Suggested Lessons Learned Meeting Techniques
• Tips for Facilitating Lessons Learned Meeting(s)

When to run a Lessons Learned Meeting

The Lessons Learned meeting is typically held during the project closure process. However, for larger efforts broken out into discrete phases or milestones, it might be advantageous to schedule meetings to collect lessons learned at the completion of each phase/milestone.

Generally Lessons Learned meetings can be run:

• At the end of a project, event, or sprint
• When important project milestone are met
• At strategically relevant points in the year (e.g. each semester, quarter, etc.)
• After an incident, or when something went wrong
• On a regular basis to maximize learning (e.g. every two weeks, monthly, etc.)

Projects running a bit more Agile using Scrum practices, hold a retrospective lessons learned meeting. The purpose is to look back and review how the last working period went, with the goal of achieving continuous improvement.

Who Attends a Lessons Learned Meeting

Depending upon the projects scope and size, a Lessons Learned meeting may be held with the entire project team, various stakeholder groups, and/or one-on-one individuals. Typically a lessons learned meeting should only involve folks who can contribute meaningful insights. An overbearing supervisor who wasn't involved in the project shouldn't be invited; however, a customer service rep who talks to customers daily may be able to bring helpful insights, even if they didn't work on the project directly.

Suggested Lessons Learned Meeting Techniques

The techniques used in a lessons learned meeting will depend upon the size of the group and the general sense of how the project went. The following chart is a suggested guideline on which meeting format to consider.

Tips for Facilitating Lessons Learned Meeting(s)

• Ask questions to identify the actual processes behind what was done well or what could have been improved
  e.g. if stakeholders state that requirements were done well, ask questions to determine what process was used to gather and maintain requirements so that future projects can also take advantage of the process. A lesson learned may be that "requirements gathering works better when end users are involved up front and prototyping tools are used"
• It is recommended that a third party be engaged to facilitate lessons learned to encourage honest, open feedback and capture the lessons learned in an objective, unbiased way.
• It is recommended that the meeting have no more than 12 participants. Holding multiple meetings with small groups, can be more effective.
• If the facilitator knows up front there will be strong, opposing views, consider holding the lessons learned meetings independently with each group so the differing perspectives can be heard. Remember, the facilitator's goal is to listen and ensure all stakeholders feel they have been heard and capture the lessons learned in an unbiased way.
• If lessons learned have been collected through the project/program, or if a project satisfaction survey has already been conducted, share a summary of those results before the actual meeting.
• Ask participants to review project documentation such as project charter, change requests, scope, requirements, etc. to recall what happened during the project/program before coming to the meeting.
• While it is important to document all of the lessons learned for the report, the meeting should focus more on the top 3-5 lessons when trying to gather more details about the process and how these lesson(s) should be applied for future projects and programs.
• The facilitator should approach the meeting with an open mind.
• Lessons learned meetings can get controversial. The facilitator should strive to keep the discussions at an issues level and avoid finger pointing.
• When there is disagreement, ensure all viewpoints are heard.

Next Steps

Summarize the lessons learned in a Lessons Learned Report. Some of the lessons learned may even be used towards assessing the project's success in the project closure report. Once the Lessons Learned report is complete, proceed to the Closure Report to close the project and share with others as appropriate, and include in the project's document repository.

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