Documenting now to prepare for the future

A good formalized documentation process is key to capture and keep track of any ‘lessons learned’ from the beginning of the project. A good place to start is looking at previous projects within your company and see which ‘lessons learned’ have been captured in the past that might be relevant. Maybe your first ‘lesson learned’ will be how important it is to capture ‘lesson learned’ when you read incomplete or insufficient ‘lessons learned’. Most ‘lessons learned’ are often not captured until the end of the project, so the documentation relies on a good memory. Time should be taken to document learnings throughout the project, for example during team meetings, and explore them as learning opportunities. ‘Lessons learned’ include positive as well as negative experiences: what was done right, what was done wrong and what could have been done better. It is important to review the ‘lessons learned’ by the end of the project with the team to make sure the list is complete and correct. This way you can help reduce the odds of other teams making the same mistakes. Similar as a pandemic, these captured learnings will be helpful for the next project or team.