Lessons Learnt in Project Management

This report discusses the lessons learnt in project management, focusing on communication and risk management. It provides a framework for documenting and improving these lessons. Recommendations are given for integrating the lessons learnt.

Lessons Learnt
TERM 2ASS_3
LESSONS LEARNT
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Student NumberInsert student number
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Lessons Learnt
Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
2A. LESSONS LEARNT: FRAMEWORK.........................................................................................3
2b. LESSONS LEARNT: FRAMEWORK (con’t)..............................................................................4
3.1 Lesson 1..........................................................................................................................................5
3.2 Lesson 1: IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY.....................................................................................5
4.1 Lesson 2..........................................................................................................................................6
4.2 Lesson 2: IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY.....................................................................................7
5.1 Lesson 3..........................................................................................................................................8
5.2 Lesson 3: IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY.....................................................................................8
6. Conclusion......................................................................................................................................10
7. Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
8. References......................................................................................................................................11
1. INTRODUCTION
This report aims at defining the lessons learnt during the PPMP20008 course. The
course contained many lessons on project management such as quality management,
risk management, communication management etc. Each lesson presented different
techniques and tools to be used during the respective phase of the project
development lifecycle. In this project, a lesson learnt framework shall be formed for
two lessons which is used for framing these lessons.
2A. LESSONS LEARNT: FRAMEWORK
2.1 How I planned to gather and document lessons learnt
When I planned to
identify and collect
lessons learnt
Who I planned to involve
in the process of
gathering lessons
How I planned to
document lessons
I planned to learn key sub-
topic of all the topics of the
course.
I took help of my classmates
in order to frame my
learning goal.
I decided to log book to
manage my learning flow
and findings.
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Lessons Learnt
2B. LESSONS LEARNT: FRAMEWORK (CON’T)
2.2 What actually happened?
When I identified and
collected lessons learnt
Who I involved in the
process of gathering
lessons
How I documented
lessons
It was at the beginning of
the course when I realized
that besides human
resources, procurement of
material resources is
equally important and
moreover the procurement
in itself is a very
complicated subject. Then
I realized that along with
log book, I would need to
include other resources to
record my lessons learnt
(Tinnirello, 2012).
I started referring online
books and discussed with
my instructor as well.
Along with the log book, I
maintained a snapshots
collection of my supportive
materials.
3.1 LESSON 1
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
feel…
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the
situation
I learnt about this lesson
when communication matrix
part was started in
communication plan. It
depicts that for an effective
communication, along with
frequency of communication,
document type is equally
important.
The situation made me feel
that type of document shared
among the team members is
very important for the team
to understand the different
status reports of a project. If
the document type is not
explanatory and ha high
learning curve, then entire
purpose of communication
will be defeated because of
This situation taught me
that before starting a
project, a set of type of
documents should be laid
down first in order to avoid
gaps in communication in
near future. Along with this,
owner of the document
should also be verified and
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Lessons Learnt
this (Patel, 2008). declared before launching
the project.
3.2 LESSON 1: IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY
1.
Improvement
strategy
2. How to
measure if the
strategy works
3. Why the
strategy is
achievable
4. Relevance
of strategy to
address the
lesson
5. When the
strategy will
be
implemented
In order to
come up with
the set of
approved
document
formats, all
project team
members
should arrange
for a meeting
where the type
and contents of
the documents
are decided
before kicking-
off the project.
Contents
should be
formatted in a
way that all
team members
irrespective of
the role, should
Measurement
can be done by
having a
meeting just
after the
distributing the
document and
if no query rises
in the meeting,
then the
strategy may
be considered
as pass.
All project
members are to
be notified via
some medium
about the
progress or any
issues in the
project. This
has been done
using
documents
since the very
start of the
project
management.
Hence, it forms
a base of any
project
management
plan.
The
communication
strategy shall
allow team
members to
understand the
issues /
updates about
the project with
no learning
curve.
As soon as
project
development
starts, the
strategy shall
start at that
time itself.
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Lessons Learnt
gain complete
understanding
of the project’s
status of any
time duration
(Meredith,
2019).
3.3 LESSON 2
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
feel…
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the
situation
I learnt this lesson when
course started risk
management module. Risk
management is an integral
part of the project
management plan. I found
that it has a metric called
risk register which needs to
be prepared with high
accuracy. Depending on it,
risk register is made. A
slight deviation can lead to
incorrect or inefficient
mitigation plan.
In order to prepare a
correct risk metric, it is
important to differentiate
the risk impact and risk
likelihood on the scale of
low, medium and high.
These are key parameters
which ultimately provide a
risk rating to all the risks.
Hence, I came to this
conclusion that correct
categorization of impact
and frequency is very
important for finalizing a
risk management.
This situation taught me to
create metric in a way that
risk rating is accurately
calculated using the
frequency and impact of
the risk. It is a tough task
of creating a mitigation for
the risks hence risk rating
needs to be calculated as
accurately as possible.
3.4 LESSON 1: IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY
1. 2. How to 3. Why the 4. Relevance 5. When the
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Lessons Learnt
Improvement
strategy
measure if the
strategy works
strategy is
achievable
of strategy to
address the
lesson
strategy will
be
implemented
Risk metric
needs to be
prepared before
starting the
project because
in between of
the project it is
not feasible to
categorize the
occurring risks.
It can be
created in
project kick-off
meeting.
Measurement
can be done
when the at any
point of time
during project
development,
all risks are
categorized
without leaving
any risk
unattended.
Since the risk
metric forms
the base of risk
management
plan and it is
formed as an
integral part
project
management
plan, hence it
will not be
missed out by
the project
team
(Heerkens,
2015).
The risk
metric / risk
management
shall allow
team members
to understand
the risks and
categorize
them easily
about the
project with no
learning curve.
As soon as
project
development
starts, the
strategy shall
start at that
time itself.
6. CONCLUSION
The module had presented various topics and each topic taught many lessons. The topics
included stakeholders, scope and schedule, cost, risk, communication, quality management,
contracts, procurement, etc. However, in this report, we were given a chance to
demonstrate only two learning lessons. First lesson came from communication plan topic
and other lesson came from risk management topic. In order to frame a learning lesson, a
framework is required to depict the planned learning goals and actually learnt lessons.
After framing the lessons then it is important to frame an improvement strategy where in
lesson learnt is analysed from different perspectives i.e. Whether the improvement
strategy is achievable and if so, then why and how can it be achieved. After framing it, next
part of improvement strategy is to depict at what point of project, the mentioned strategy
will come in to use (Deeprose, 2013).
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Lessons Learnt
7. RECOMMENDATIONS
This report shows that every step or phase of the project management has few learnings
and it is important for the learner to log these lessons to be a successful project manager
in future. The project life cycle has various phases starting from initiation to closure. The
initiation phase talks about scope and likewise each project has key different learnings.
However, the lessons learnt are not separated from each other. Hence, it is important to
integrate each lesson learnt with each other. For instance: risk metric importance cannot
be understood fully until all team members are kept in loop i.e. all are well-informed in the
most appropriate medium using proper and complete document. Hence, as a leaner, focus
should not only writing lesson learnt but also on the integration among them.
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Lessons Learnt
REFERENCES
Deeprose, D. (2013). Project management (2nd ed., pp. 12-14). Oxford, U.K.: Capstone
Pub.
Heerkens, G. (2015). Project management (2nd ed., pp. 22-24). USA: Mcgraw-Hill
Education.
Meredith, J. (2019). Project Management (2nd ed., pp. 22-24). New York: Wiley.
Patel, V. (2008). Project management (1st ed., pp. 23-25). Jaipur, India: Oxford Book Co.
Tinnirello, P. (2012). Project management (1st ed., pp. 45-47). Boca Raton: Auerbach.
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