Many people are in the habit of writing every day in a personal journal to keep track of behaviors to help them reflect and grow.
Journals are a great way to record life experiences and learn from them. In a work environment, and especially for projects, the discipline of lessons learned works the same way.
In this guide, we outline each step to create an effective process, show how to set up a central repository in Microsoft 365 using BrightWork 365.
What is Lessons Learned?
Lessons Learned is the habit of documenting the positive and negative experiences to note important lessons from a project.
They provide an excellent opportunity for organizations to review lessons learned from projects and for project managers to learn from the actual experiences of others.
It is essential to define a Lessons Learned process and build governance around it so that costly mistakes are not repeated and to encourage positive behaviors.
Lessons Learned Process
Capturing lessons learned helps project teams record successes and challenges so that future initiatives benefit from real experience.
A lessons learned process is a systematic approach to identifying, documenting, and applying project experiences. It serves three primary goals:
- Prevent repeat mistakes by recording what went wrong and why
- Reinforce positive practices by capturing what worked well
- Inform future projects with actionable recommendations
How Do You Record Lessons Learned?
A good lessons learned format should cover three areas:
- What worked well
- What needs to be improved
- What new things need to start
Many teams do Lessons Learned in the wrong way by capturing mistakes and targeting individuals. For instance, a poor lesson learned sample might say ‘John missed the deadline,’ whereas good examples focus on the process, not the person.
Reviewing various examples of lessons learned in project management can help teams understand this distinction.
Obtaining what went wrong is just 30% of recording Lessons Learned. The rest of the story focuses on identifying good behaviors, encouraging teams to repeat them, and exploring new approaches.
Core Components of a Lessons Learned Process
To manage these insights, you need to understand the main artifacts.
1. Lessons Learned Register
A live log in SharePoint or a Microsoft 365 list where team members add entries as they occur.
2. Formal Report
A consolidated document at the end of a project or phase, summarizing entries and analysis.
3. Review Session
A facilitated meeting with stakeholders, often called a post-mortem, to validate findings and agree on action items.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Avoiding common mistakes is key to building an effective lessons learned process. Below are frequent pitfalls teams encounter when capturing and managing project insights. Steering clear of these will help create a constructive environment for continuous improvement.
- Blame-focused entries – Document process failures, not individual errors.
- Late capture – Log insights throughout the project, not only at closure.
- Fragmented storage – Avoid project-specific silos; use a shared repository.
Steps to Implement Your Lessons Learned Process
Every organization should define and adopt a lesson learned process that is integrated throughout the entire project lifecycle, not just at the end. This process ensures continuous improvement by making past knowledge accessible.
For instance, a review of relevant past lessons should be a standard part of the project kickoff, and a more formal, comprehensive review is a critical activity during the project closure phase.
At BrightWork, we hope our customers will define their process in two phases:
- Establishing an Organizational Lessons Learned Repository.
- Every Project’s Lessons Learned Process.
1. Plan and Integrate
Embed lessons learned activities in kickoff, status meetings, and closeout phases.
2. Capture in Real Time
Encourage team members to log findings immediately using the register.
3. Analyze and Classify
Group entries by category, perform root cause analysis, and derive actionable insights.
4. Share and Apply
Present the formal report in a review session and assign follow-up actions.
5. Centralize Knowledge
Link project entries to an organizational repository for cross-project search and reuse.
6. Govern and Maintain
Include a checkpoint at each phase gate and schedule quarterly audits to update or archive entries.
Creating the Right Culture
The success of a process depends on the supporting culture. For successful knowledge sharing, creating a blame-free environment is important.
This encourages all team members to provide honest and constructive stakeholder feedback without fear of reprisal, leading to more authentic and valuable insights.
Establishing a Lessons Learned Repository
Defining clear lessons learned categories is important in the repository to retrieve and consume in later projects. Store all lessons learned entries in a central SharePoint list or Microsoft 365 database.
Classification can include:
- Scope and Requirements Management
- Schedule Management
- Budgets Management
- Quality Management
- Issues & Risks Management
- Resources & Vendors Management
- Communications
- Stakeholders
- Reports Management
Within each category, we allowed teams to register successes and failures and list any new things to try. A good lessons learned document example would clearly categorize each finding under these headings.
What to Include in a Lessons Learned System
A complete lessons learned system should include two sections within the repository.
- Main Repository
- Issues-Risks-Defects resolutions tracker
A 4-Step Process for Every Project
A simple process should be defined and adopted for recording Lessons Learned for every project. A good lessons learned project management template can help standardize this.
The purpose of a process is to determine the routine and adopt it throughout your project team.
Our process includes four simple steps:
- Link to organizational Repository
- Identify & log
- Analyze & classify
- Monitoring and governance
We recommend that Lessons Learned happen throughout the project. You should log an experience during meetings or immediately when you find it.
Often, people forget things by the end of the phase or project.
Step 1 – Link to the Central Repository
Lessons Learned should not be a ceremonial meeting at the end of the project to check a box.
Projects will be archived after they are completed, which could ultimately result in organizations finding it hard to locate and take advantage of decentralized and project-specific Lessons Learned repositories.
To address this problem, we at BrightWork recommend establishing a central organizational-level lesson learned repository, which essentially functions as a lessons learned database project management teams can query.
Our Customer Success Architects (CSAs) can develop workflows that can link project-level Lessons Learned to the central Repository.
Step 2 – Methods for Gathering Information
The next step is to identify and log comments and recommendations that could be valuable for future projects. You can use various methods to gather this information systematically.
A standardized questionnaire or brief surveys can be sent to team members to collect structured feedback. For deeper analysis into complex issues, techniques like the five whys or a fishbone diagram can help identify the true source of a problem.
Step 3 – Analyze for Actionable Insights
Classification and Analysis are vital for Lessons Learned retrieval in future projects. The goal is to move beyond simply logging events and perform a root cause analysis to derive actionable insights.
This analysis should produce clear recommendations and specific action items to guide future projects. Whoever is logging should apply the utmost care to avoid the ‘garbage-in-garbage-out’ mistake. Ensure every entry answers:
- Why did this succeed or fail?
- What will we do differently next time?
- Who is responsible for the follow-up?
Step 4 – Implement Governance and Monitoring
Include a lessons learned review at each phase-gate or milestone review to make sure project teams are making efforts in logging correct project lessons. Assign an owner to verify that entries are accurate and complete. Schedule quarterly audits to remove outdated findings and maintain data quality.
Closing the Loop – Lessons Learned in Action
An effective lessons learned process drives continuous improvement by capturing real project experiences, fostering a culture of open knowledge sharing, and enabling teams to avoid past mistakes while replicating successes.
Integrating this process throughout the project lifecycle ensures your organization consistently benefits from valuable insights.
Take the next step in optimizing your lessons learned process. Contact us to see BrightWork 365 in action.
