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Project Management Orientation

Documenting Lessons You Have Learned

Lessons learned on a project are very valuable to delivery team members and members of current or future project teams.  It should not be necessary for every project manager to make every mistake.  A database of lessons learned can help project managers learn from each other's experiences.
  
This information is documented in the project evaluation report, which becomes part of the organization's historical database for the project.  Accessible to other project managers, a lessons learned list is a valuable tool in any organization.
  
Lessons learned are not necessarily negative.  They can describe a way to do something better, faster, or more efficiently.  You, as the project manager, should document lessons learned as soon as possible after the lesson is experienced, while the memory is fresh and most likely to be accurate.  When deciding what to document, remember that the lesson:

1: Getting Started
2: Define the Project Team
3: Team Management
4: Identify and Validate Requirements
5: Create Decomposition Structures
6: Risk Management
7: Project Estimates
8: Project Schedules
9: Change Management
10: Project Control and Execution
Defining the Project
11: Project Management Review
12: Project Closeout
13: Project Management Tool Suite
14: Self-Assessment and Final Exam
Fast Points
Concepts
Seven Keys
Case Study
WWPMM
Mentor
Check Point
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