What is a Lessons Learned Template?
Lessons learned concerns the knowledge obtained from process of conducting a project whether it be positive or negative. Identifying the positives will enable you to promote the future reoccurrence of desirable outcomes, whilst identifying the negatives will prevent you from repeating the same mistakes.
The benefits of an effective lessons learned process include:
- Reducing project costs by avoiding previous areas of failure.
- Driving the continual improvement of your processes.
- Promoting a healthy culture of knowledge sharing throughout your organisation.
Why is a Lessons Learned Process Important to your Business?
There are many benefits to implementing a lessons learned process in your business. By taking the time to document and review what has worked well and what hasn’t in the past, you can avoid making the same mistakes again and improve your overall operations.
Additionally, a lessons learned template can help you to standardize your process and ensure that all relevant information is captured.
When done correctly, a lessons learned process can help your business to save time and money by preventing repeat mistakes. It can also improve communication and collaboration within your organization, as well as increase customer satisfaction. Ultimately, taking the time to document and review lessons learned can help your business to run more smoothly and effectively.
What is a Lessons Learned Template and Why is it Important?
A lessons learned template, in terms of project management, defines the steps necessary to effectively evaluating both the successes and failings of a completed project.
A standardised lessons learned template will make it easier for you to identify the mistakes made during the project and help you to prevent them from reoccurring in the future.
It will also help you identify areas of success highlighting which areas of your project management are strong.
A successful lessons learned template will help improve communication across your organisation whilst also driving the improvement of your processes which is crucial to achieving ISO compliance.
How to Create your own Lessons Learned Template
The first step to planning your template is determining the objectives you want to attain with this process.
For a lessons learned template, your goal is to effectively evaluate the areas of success and failure of a completed project.
Next you need to determine the start and endpoints of your lessons learned template.
In our example which you can download below, we begin with preparing a project survey and end with a review of the lessons learned.
However, this process may be completely different for your organisation. With Jomo247 our template designer is completely customisable so you can configure your templates to your specific requirements.
Once you have established the start and endpoints of your lessons learned template, you can now begin determining the remaining steps required to push your process through from start to finish.
Think about the steps needed to effectively evaluate your projects and address any failures that may have occurred.
Don’t forget to highlight the steps that will require conditional logic, as these will affect the progression of your process.
Now you can determine the stakeholders involved in your template. Think about those involved, their specific duties, and the information they need to successfully complete the task.
When creating roles think about the different departments in your organisation that will be involved in the lessons learned template.
In our example, we used generic roles such as ‘Project Team’ or ‘Project Manager’. However, you may wish to tailor these more specifically to your organisation.
Once a clear plan has been determined it is now time to create your lessons learned template.
Jomo247 Cloud-Based Lessons Learned Template Builder
You could use traditional methods to map out an image of your lessons learned template. However, we recommend creating a digital version of your template using software like Jomo247 that can help automate your processes.
Jomo247’s template designer also incorporates customisable roles, meaning it is even easier for you to manage who will be involved in your lessons learned template.
Once the template is complete you can now implement it.
Remember to closely track the performance of the new process just in case adjustments are required.
Continual improvement is key to compliance and ensuring the increasing productivity of your organisation.
Not only does Jomo247 consider lessons learned templates, but it also enables you to manage compliance with regulations and standards across your organization.
It helps you identify and track non-conformance, as well as tagging and correcting compliance risks.
This makes it easier to ensure compliance with regulations and protect your organization from possible penalties.
