ned Database

Project Name Date Category Lesson Type Introduced by Issue / Lesson Impact Root Cause Possible Solution / Action
 Lesson Category
Business Analysis
Business Expectations
Business Requirements
Change Management
Communication
Cost
Development
General
Implementation
Issues Management
Project Documentation
Project Planning
Project Strengths
Quality Assurance
Resources & Staffing
Risk Management
Schedule of Deliverables
Scope Management
System Design
Team Dynamics
Team Productivity
Technical Requirements
Training
User Acceptance Testing
Vendor Management
 Lesson Category
Business Analysis
Business Expectations
Are you proud of our finished deliverables (project work products)? If yes, what's so good about them? If no, what's wrong
with them?
Did our hand-off of deliverables to the user/customer/sponsor represent a smooth and easy transition? If not, how could we
have improved this process?
Business Requirements
Were the requirements clear?
Change Management
Were all changes to the plan clearly communicated?
Communication
Were all team/stakeholder roles and responsibilities clearly delineated and communicated? If not, how could we have
improved these?
Were the deliverables specifications, milestones, and specific schedule elements/dates clearly communicated? If not, how
could we improve this?
How effective was communication no the team?
Was there clear communication among the members of the team?
Cost
Development
Did all the important project players have creative input into the creation of the deliverables? If not, who were we missing and
how can we assure their involvement next time?
Did those who reviewed the deliverables provide timely and meaningful input? If not, how could we have improved their
involvement and the quality of their contributions?
How could we have improved our work process for creating deliverables?
How useful were the development tools you were given to use?
Did you consistently understand the build status on the project?
General
What was the single most frustrating part of our project?
How would you do things differently next time to avoid this frustration?
What was the most gratifying or professionally satisfying part of the project?
Which of our methods or processes were difficult or frustrating to use?
If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the project, what would you change?
Did our stakeholders, senior managers, customers, and sponsor(s) participate effectively? If not, how could we improve their
participation?
Please evaluate the contributions of executive management.
Was this project successful?
Were the processes adequate?
Were the right proceesses in place?
Why was this project a success, failure, or neither?
What would you have done differently to make this project more successful?
What is the most important thing that you learned on this project?
What is the one thing NOT DONE on this project that you would push for on your next project?
Implementation
Was our implementation strategy accurate and effective? How could we improve this strategy?
Issues Management
Describe any early warning signs of problems that occurred later in the project? How should we have reacted to these signs?
How can we be sure to notice these early warning signs next time?
Were issues resolved at the appropriate level?
Were questions / issues resolved to your satisfaction?
What were the problems with this project?
Were decisions and issue resolutions clearly communicated?
Project Documentation
Was adequate documentation made available to you?
Was the process for writing and distributing release notes work well?
Project Planning
How accurate were our original estimates of the size and effort of our project? What did we over or under estimate?
(Consider deliverables, work effort, materials required, etc.)
How could we have improved our estimate of size and effort so that it was more accurate?
Was the project vision clear?
Project Strengths
Which of our methods or processes worked particularly well?
What was the most enjoyable time on the project? Why?
Quality Assurance
Were you able to work clesely with development engineers on this project?
Did the bug reporting process work well on this project?
Resources & Staffing
List team members or stakeholders who were missing from the kickoff meeting or who were not involved early enough in our
project. How can we avoid these oversights in the future?
How was the support you received from other departments?
What aspects of the project presented the biggest personal challenge?
Risk Management
Were risks identified and mitigated?
Schedule of Deliverables
Was adequate time scheduled for each of your tasks?
Was the schedule met?
Were your individual deliverables achievable?
Scope Management
Did our needs/market analysis or feasibility study identify all the project deliverables that we eventually had to build? If not,
what did we miss and how can we be sure our future analyses don't miss such items?
Did our needs/market analysis or feasibility study identify unnecessary deliverables? If so, how can we be sure our future
analyses don't make this mistake?
How could we have improved our need-feasibility or analysis phase?
Did the project stay within scope?
Were project goals clearly understood?
Were the appropriate people involved in the project definition process?
System Design
Were you proud of our blueprints or other detailed design specifications? If not, how could we have improved these?
Did all the important project players have creative input into the creation of the design specifications? If not, who were we
missing and how can we assure their involvement next time?
Did those who reviewed the design specifications provide timely and meaningful input? If not, how could we have improved
their involvement and the quality of their contributions?
Were design reviews used effectively on the project?
Team Dynamics
Did you feel that your input/contribution was important and valued?
How supportive were the other team memebers?
Did you receive adequate recognition from my direct management team?
Team Productivity
Did we have the right people assigned to all project roles? (Consider subject matter expertise, technical contributions,
management, review and approval, and other key roles) If no, how can we make sure that we get the right people next time?

How effective was the team composition (enough developers, testers or leadership)?
Did the team have the right skills?
Please rate the team structure.
Would you make any changes in the team organization? If so, please elaborate.
Did Project related meetings made good use of your time?
Technical Requirements
How could we have improved our work process for creating deliverables specifications?
Was the specifications clear?
Training
User Acceptance Testing
Were the members of our test audience truly representative of our target audience? If not, how could we assure better
representation in the future?
Did the test facilities, equipment, materials, and support people help to make the test an accurate representation of how the
deliverables will be used in the "real world?" If not, how could we have improved on these items?
Did we get timely, high-quality feedback about how we might improve our deliverables? If not, how could we get better
feedback in the future?
Vendor Management
Could we have completed this project without one or more of our vendors/contractors? If so, how?
Were our constraints, limitations, and requirements made clear to all vendors/contractors from the beginning? If not, how
could we have improved our RFP or statement of need?
Were there any difficulties negotiating the vendor contract? How could these have been avoided?
Were there any difficulties setting up vendor paperwork (purchase orders, contracts, etc.) or getting the vendor started? How
could these have been avoided?