PPMP20008 - Assessment 3: Report on Lessons Learnt in Projects

This report analyzes the lessons learned throughout the PPMP20008 unit, focusing on initiating and planning projects. The report details the process of gathering and documenting lessons, including identifying similar past projects, gathering relevant information, and involving project teams. It presents three key lessons: the importance of the design phase, the significance of risk planning, and the need for effective implementation techniques. Each lesson includes a situation, the resulting feelings, and the learning outcomes, along with improvement strategies, methods for measuring strategy effectiveness, and the relevance of the strategies. The report emphasizes the importance of verification and validation, and provides a conclusion that highlights the value of recording each project phase for future learning and improvement. The report emphasizes the need for documenting each project phase because each stage comprises different lessons to be learned.

Running head: INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 1
Initiating and Learning Projects
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 2
INTRODUCTION
During the project development process several lesson are learnt both individually and
from project members. The learning process is achieved through observation and interaction
among project teams. The lessons learnt in a project should be documented to enable for future
use in similar projects. According to PPMP 20008 the course describes key aspects which are
involved during planning a project. PPMP 20008 outlines the steps used when planning a project
such as identifying stakeholder’s duties, materials and resources and risk plan (Hazır, 2015).
2 Lessons learnt: Framework
2.1 How I planned to gather and document lesson learnt
Getting started: the first thing in the process of initiation is to refer to previous lessons
learned on similar projects and use the information as input to the present project plan (Russell,
Pferdehirt, & Nelson, 2018). In order to determine the significance of this information I used the
following approach:
Identified similar past projects: The lesson learnt from previous project could only be
relevant if the current project is similar.
Gather information that is relevant: If the project is similar to the present one, it is
important to identify a team of project members to plan on how collect vital information from the
previous projects. The information that will be regarded as suitable include data about suitable
tasks to be included in the present project and data on the resources required to accomplish the
project (Kerzner, 2017).

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 3
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
Find similar projects Project managers, project
members teams, project
sponsors, stakeholders and
project management
I will search for vital
information from project
management journals and
books, project management
bodies such as project
information systems and
knowledge management
systems
What actually happened?
When I identified and
collected lessons learnt
Who I involved in the
process of gathering lessons
How I documented lessons
Provide clarification to the
project team and primary
stakeholders about the project
plan
Project management, project
team and major stakeholders
The lessons that I will
documents include the project
plan. A project plan is a
crucial part for any project
because it act as a guide for
the entire project lifecycle.

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 4
3 LESSONS
3.1 Lesson 1
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
feel…
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the situation
Design phase The design phase made to
feel motivated to foresee how
the complete project product
will resolve the end user’s
need and provide them with
satisfaction
The designed phase is used in
create a picture of how the
final project product will look
like once the project has been
completed
3.2 Lesson 1: Improvement Strategy
Risk planning
Project development process cannot run smoothly from the beginning until the end of the
project without experiencing several challenges in the course of the project lifecycle. Therefore,
a risk plan is vital for the successful development of a project. Risk planning is a time when the
project manager and other major stakeholders and the project management teams identify
probable risks that could impede the project progress (Harrison, & Lock, 2017). Once these risks
have been identified, the risk planning team will then examine and propose response actions to

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 5
counter the risk before they can actually occur. The most important aspect in risk planning is that
it should align with the project management plan. To effectively analyze the risk the project
manager can use a qualitative risk analysis to determine the likelihood of risk occurring (Giraldo
González et al., 2018). The project risk plan follows a specific process as illustrated in the table
below.
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
Risk is identified Brainstorming and
open discussion
are used as the
main strategies by
the project
manager, and key
stakeholders to
quantify the
efficiency of the
strategy
(Mutwiri, Were,
& Odhiambo,
2018).
Brainstorming and
open discussion
are strategies
which are realistic
because it is
simple to
implement
When a risk is
identified it
provides the
project team with
the ability to
foresee likely
threats that could
interrupt the
project success
When the project
is 40% complete.
Perform a
qualitative risk
Carry out a risk
analysis by
This technique is
possible because
The risk is
clustered and
When the project
is 40% complete.

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 6
analysis classifying the risk
likelihood of
occurrence and the
impact using a
tailored
classifying scale
the qualitative risk
analysis can be
measured based
on the tailored
scale
recorded in a risk
register
3.2 Lesson 2: Implementation Techniques
The technique used at the implementation phase should be a metric that can perform
quantity and quality of the product being developed. Once the results regarding the project
quality has been determined the results should be provided to the stakeholders and the project
administration to inform them about the progress of the project (Meredith, Mantel Jr, & Shafer,
2017).
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
feel…
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the situation
Implementation phase The situation made to
understand that implementation
phase is a key technique that
helps to determine the success
of a project (Fernandes et al.,
2019).
I learnt that for a project to be
developed successfully success
metrics should be based on user
requirements

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 7
4.1 Lesson 2: Improvement Strategy
Advance a strategy that shall be used to monitor the practices implemented by assessing these
activities against the outcomes and recommendations made by the project plan team (Meredith,
Mantel Jr, & Shafer, 2017).
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
Sketch a method
that will be used to
verify the process
The client should
to be satisfied
about the
delivered project
product accepting
that it has met
their needs
This approach is
realistic because it
uses affordable
instruments to
monitor the
project progress
This strategy is
realistic because it
is used to
ascertain that the
project is
developed
according to the
initially planned
goals (Chen,
2015).
When the project
is 85% complete
Verification and Validation
This process is used to ensure that implementation strategies agreed during implementation
phase are well implemented.

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 8
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
feel…
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the situation
Verification The situation made me to
understand the significance of
verification process should be
performed at implementation
phase (Kerzner, 2017).
The verification technique is
used to determine the
proficiency of the delivered
project.
4.2 Lesson 3: 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
Report
Verification and
validation
progress to senior
management
Include
verification and
validation metrics
in the project plan
This strategy has
the capability to
track the point of
closure evidence
is established and
certified through
control
justification
It the strategy
provides feedback
to stakeholders
about the general
effectiveness of
the project.
before project
closure

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 9
parallel with some
allocated actions.
Conclusion
Throughout the project cycle, I learnt that each project phase should be recorded because
each stage comprises different lesson to be learned.

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 10
References
Chen, H. L. (2015). Performance measurement and the prediction of capital project
failure. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), 1393-1404.
Fernandes, G., Silva, D., Magalhães, P., Pinto, E. B., Araújo, M., & Machado, R. J. (2019, June).
From Program Strategic Planning to Program Initiation: Lessons learned from a
collaborative University-Industry R&D case study. In 2019 IEEE International
Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Giraldo González, G. E., Castañeda Mondragón, J. C., Correa Basto, O., Ángel, S., & Carlos, J.
(2018). Diagnosis of initiation and planning of project management in pymes from the
construction economic sector. Revista EAN, (SPE), 55-83.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge: London.
Hazır, Ö. (2015). A review of analytical models, approaches and decision support tools in project
monitoring and control. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), 808-815.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring
and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J. R., Mantel Jr, S. J., & Shafer, S. M. (2017). Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.

INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 11
Mutwiri, F. R., Were, S., & Odhiambo, R. (2018). Project Identification and Initiation Practices
on the Success of CDF Construction Projects in Kenya. Journal of Entrepreneurship &
Project Management, 2(2), 47-56.
Russell, J., Pferdehirt, W., & Nelson, J. (2018). Project Initiation, Scope, and
Structure. Technical Project Management in Living and Geometric Order.