Lessons report

The lessons report documents experiences and insights that may be valuable to future projects. Its primary purpose is to encourage action—ensuring that positive lessons are embedded in the organisation’s way of working and that negative experiences are not repeated.

Timeline

A lessons report must be created at the end of the project, as part of the closing a project process. In larger or more complex projects, additional lessons reports may also be produced at key points during the project—for example, during the managing a stage boundary process.

Although the final lessons report is part of the end project report, lessons can and should be recorded throughout the project. A lessons report can be created anytime, and lessons are often also included in end stage reports.

In some cases, it can be helpful to create multiple lessons reports, each focused on a specific area or audience—such as lessons relating to a particular product, supplier, or technology.

Source data

The lessons report draws on various sources to ensure lessons are accurate, relevant, and supported by evidence from throughout the project:

• Project initiation documentation: Provides the baseline for comparing planned vs. actual performance.
• Lessons log: The primary source for identifying and compiling lessons captured during the project.
• Project registers – including the quality register, issue register, and risk register – can provide useful data for trend or statistical analysis.
• Quality records: Offer detailed insights for analysing recurring issues or successes.
• Communication management approach: Helps determine the appropriate distribution list for sharing the lessons report.

Quality criteria

To ensure the lessons report is insightful, useful, and actionable, it should meet the following quality criteria:

• Begin with a review of unexpected risks, as these often highlight lessons about what could have been better anticipated.
• Evaluate each management control used in the project (e.g., stage boundaries, reporting, exception handling) for effectiveness and lessons learned.
• Compare estimated vs. actual values (e.g., time, cost, effort) to uncover planning gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Include feedback from project assurance roles, if assigned, to capture independent observations.
• Document actions taken during the project in response to lessons and recommend future actions for similar projects.

Tips

The following tips help you have better lessons reports:

• Creating a lessons report at the end of each stage encourages a learning culture where team members are more open to reflecting on mistakes and sharing insights.
• Lessons reporting won’t be effective in a blame culture — psychological safety is key to honest learning.
• Project registers (risk, issue, quality) are often the richest sources of lessons and should be reviewed closely when compiling the report.
• A great practice is to have each project manager present key lessons from their project to fellow PMs and team managers, which is a valuable way to share real experiences and build collective wisdom.

—o—

Written by Frank Turley.

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