Lessons Learned Workshop Template

Importance to Knowledge Management One practice of considerable value to a project is the lessons learned workshop. Most individuals and organizations may already have some approach to lessons learned, but do not exploit the knowledge found in these endeavors to their limits. Even the project which is run perfectly is a learning experience; people within the project have learned the right things to do in a project. More often though, projects do not run smoothly and there are lessons to what not to do. From a knowledge management perspective, lessons learned workshops serve two purposes: identify the best ways to conduct projects and ensure that all the project knowledge is available for later use.

Importance of Project Management Lessons learned workshops are performed at the end of every project and discusses: What went wrong? What went right? What could have been better? Were the right people working? Etc. However, lessons learned play a significant role at the beginning of a project. Planning can be influenced by the results of lessons learned workshops from previous projects.

Intention of this Template The purpose of this workshop template is to provide a formal approach for organizing and facilitating a lessons learned workshop. The template will provide a format, structure, and guidelines related to a general workshop to discuss lessons learned. Organizations using the template will want to fill in project specifics.

Planning for the Workshop Planning the lessons learned workshop must define: How long will the workshop be? Who will participate? And how? What are the relevant issues? The size and complexity of the project will often influence the decisions made in planning a lessons learned workshop. A global project in several locations will have more difficult requirements to meet than a small project in a single location.   Lessons learned workshops can be conducted over several days or in a single day. In general, it is best if the workshop does not last for longer than 3 days for any group, though a global project may conduct a different workshop at each location scheduled over several weeks. Highly complex projects will likely adopt a phased approach, which allows a lessons learned workshop to be conducted after each project phase, rather than at project end. The shortest amount of time to allot to a lessons learned workshop is a single day (6-8 hours). Any shorter time will increase the risk of ineffectiveness in the lessons learned. However, as the time allocated to the workshop decreases, the amount of preparation for the workshop increases. Many of the decisions related to the workshop may need to be decided, such as the relevant issues, to discuss. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Length of Workshop The length of Workshop will be proportional to: Size of the project Number of issues, incidents, and problems Project performance (budget, schedule, resources) Customer satisfaction As a general rule, schedule a single day for the workshop at minimum and add time based on the size, complexity, project performance, and the number of issues which occurred. The time scheduled for the actual workshop can be shortened with: Adherence to project management processes “Mini” workshops after each project phase, major deliverable, or milestone Sufficient group preparation for workshop   Allocate at least 1 ½ hours to adequately cover group discussion for each major issue or grouping of issues. With introductory and final presentation in the workshop, a single day workshop can cover three major issues if done individually. The steps provided in this template will allow 6-9 major issues to be covered. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Participants The most effective lessons learned workshops will restrict participation to around 30 people. The primary participants are project team members. Stakeholders, customers, and suppliers may have input or feedback about the project which should be considered. All project team members should have a voice in the workshop. The lessons learned effort is a highly internal review of how the project performed and was managed, and may have failed. For this reason, it is unlikely that stakeholders, customers, and suppliers will actively participate in the workshop, though they may have some feedback of importance to the effort. Feedback may be derived from satisfaction surveys, performance reports, issues, complaints, or simple correspondence.   In large projects (projects with more than 40 active team members), it may be appropriate to conduct multiple workshops. The benefit of this approach allows significant groups in a project to understand and handle issues which do not concern the larger group. For instance, a software development team may learn lessons relevant to their role which the software deployment does not need to address, or a refresh project may allow the computer build team and the deployment team to address their internal issues before sharing with the larger group. Let’s ensure we understand this in more detail by considering a project with 120 active team members. The project has three significant deliverables. Each team member is involved fulfilling one deliverable and the distribution is as such: Deliverable 1 – 40 people Deliverable 2 – 25 people Deliverable 3 – 32 people Project management team – 8 people In this situation, it would be advantageous for four lessons learned workshops to be conducted: one for each group working on a deliverable, and the last workshop focuses on the entire project. The three defined workshops will allow these groups to discover the appropriate lessons within their scope without causing undue frustration or illicit additional questions from people not involved in the deliverable. However, some of the results of these workshops will and should find its way into the final project wide workshop. In the final workshops, representatives from each of the three larger groups will attend in appropriate balance, as well as the entire project management team (project manager, scheduler, accountant, resource manager, etc.). The focus of this meeting will be the entire project or more specifically, how the achievement of each deliverable impacted the rest of the project. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Potential Discussion Points Some key points for discussion: Cooperation with external parties (internal groups, customers, and suppliers) Cooperation between project team members: Communication Collaboration Project phase transitions Conflict Management Project planning and organization: Structure and management Allocation of roles Budget and schedule management Documentation/Technology use Any number of topics may be discussed during the workshop. The topics listed here provide a relatively holistic approach to discussing every aspect of the project. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Communicate the Intent of the Workshop The intent of a lessons learned workshop is to facilitate discussion about a project for the purpose of learning and adapting in the future. A lessons learned workshop is about completing the project mentally and emotionally—providing an opportunity to communicate all that needs to be said. By the time a lessons learned workshop has occurred, all the deliverables will have been met, all the issues will have been resolved, and the project will be prepared to close its books. The lessons learned workshop will be one of the last, if not the very last, group functions of the project. Most of the people will have already moved on or are already prepared to move on to their next assignment.   The lessons learned workshop is the last opportunity of the project team members to communicate what needs to be said to complete the project, in a professional manner. The workshop enables individuals and groups to recognize their contribution, their mistakes, and their triumphs in such a manner conducive to improving future endeavors as an individual, group, or organization. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Workshop Agenda (One Day) A typical agenda will include: Background (60-90 minutes) Identifying Issues (30 minutes) Categorizing Issues (30 minutes) Discussion of Issues (60-90 minutes) Review of Issues/Actions (90 - 120 minutes) End of Workshop (60-90 minutes)

Establishing Background (60 minutes) The first agenda item – Establishing project background: Presenting workshop agenda and rules Establishing goals and objectives of workshop Revisiting Project Charter Project achievements and disappointments There are two objectives of establishing background for the workshop: creating a context for the workshop itself (why we are here, how it will function, and what roles each participant will play) and remembering key events within the project (this is especially important if the project has been going on for month or has a moderate to high level of complexity). Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Identifying Issues (30 minutes) Workshop is divided into groups of 8-12 people. Each participant will have an opportunity to write down his/her project experiences. Each experience should be described in short sentence. Experiences should cover negative and positive perspectives. The tool of choice for this effort is Post-It Notes, where each experience can be contained on a single note. The intent of this effort is to brainstorm, so there shouldn’t be any restrictions in writing the notes. However, the participants are professionals and should act accordingly – so notes like “Project Plan Sucks” or “Dan didn’t do his job” may need to be reworded to provide more clarity to the issue. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Categorizing Issues (30 minutes) Like experiences are grouped into subject areas. Each grouping must be labeled. Most experiences will be shared by participants. The issues that are most critical to discuss in the workshop are those experiences shared by most participants. By grouping issues, you are putting similar experiences into the same bucket for discussion. For instance, 15 people may complain that the project plan was too tedious and complex, but 6 people say the project remained on schedule because the project was run according to plan. These two experiences should be grouped as two separate issues for discussion or one issue under the label “Project Plan”. In this case, the best approach may be one grouping.   Every experience should be acknowledged. If a participant has a significant experience that is not shared, it may be appropriate for the project manager to discuss with the individual instead of in a group setting. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Group Discussion of Issues (60-90 mins) The following questions should be asked of each issue grouping: What went well? What could have been improved? What would have been the ideal situation? What can I have done to personally impact this issue? What should be done by the organization on the next project? Logistically, the workshop consists of participator groups and each group should discuss an issue among themselves. The answers to the questions should be written out and hung next to the issues. This can be done conveniently with poster board or butcher paper. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Workshop Review of Issues (90-120 m) Each group will review the issues and workshop question/answers created by their peers. This step in the workshop enables every workshop participant to have a voice with every issue discussed. The time allotted assumes that the workshop participants are separated into three groups. In the previous step, each group discussed a single issue and has written down their conclusions. Now, each group will rotate and review the progress of the other groups. At this point, they have an opportunity to add to the conclusions or propose new conclusions.   Since we are assuming three groups, there will be two rotations with each rotation taking half the allotted time. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

End of Workshop (60-90m minutes) Each issue and suggested actions will be presented to the entire workshop and will be agreed upon. After every participant has had a chance to provide input into every issue, the issues and its conclusions will be summarized and presented to the workshop body. The information will usually be presented as an action plan to exploit or resolve the issue in future projects. Minimal amount of discussion should be allowed at this point, but the goal is to get consensus by the workshop participants that the recommended action plans are appropriate. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Workshop Follow-up Action Plans Documentation Workshop Success After the workshop, the facilitator has two roles: ensure actions plans are assigned appropriately and ensure lessons learned documentation, including discussion notes, are adequately written and published in the right repository. Many organizations may rely on a department or team to facilitate all workshops. If this is the case for your organization, the workshop may end with a request for feedback or survey on the strengths and weaknesses of the workshop or facilitator. This feedback can be used to improve the workshop experience in the future. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

Summary Lessons Learned Workshops provide an opportunity for project team members to close their doors on the issues and triumphs of a project. It also provides the means for improving how an organization does projects or improves its business. Workshops can be highly flexible during execution, but should be the mainstay for generating and learning knowledge for an organization. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008