St. Cloud State University
Lessons Learned Outline

  1. Project perceptions
  2. What characteristics did the project seem to have when it was started?
  3. What characteristics did it have when it was completed?
  4. What
  5. .. changed during the project?
  6. .. turned out different than expected?
  7. .. was accurately foreseen?
  8. .. was unforeseen?
  9. What extra information would have been helpful at the start of the project?
  10. Knowledge and expertise gained in the project
  11. From who?
  12. By whom?
  13. How was it developed?
  14. How was it used in the project?
  15. Was this identified as needed when the project began?
  16. If not, why not?
  17. How can it be used again?
  18. Where could it be used again?
  19. Results of project estimates
  20. What things were estimated before the project began?
  21. How accurate did these estimates prove to be?
  22. What was well estimated?
  23. What was over-estimated?
  24. What was under-estimated?
  25. What were the warning signs that estimations were under or over?
  26. What information was used to make the estimates?
  27. With hindsight, could these estimates have been improved?
  28. What extra information would have improved the estimates?
  29. Project failures
  30. What went wrong?
  31. Why did it go wrong?
  32. Poor preparation and skills
  33. Flawed methods
  34. Poor judgement
  35. Bad luck
  36. Inexperience
  37. What were the real root causes?
  38. Why was this a "failure"?
  39. How measured?
  40. Measured by who?
  41. Is it a question of opinion?
  42. Was this anticipated when the project began?
  43. If it was anticipated beforehand, how did the contingencies and plans mitigate against it?
  44. What early warning signs were there that something was going wrong?
  45. How was it corrected or recovered?
  46. Could this failure have been worse than it was?
  47. Could correction or recovery be improved next time?
  48. Could the problems be avoided next time?
  49. What opportunity does this failure present?
  50. Neutral activities
  51. What activities or information made no real difference to the outcome?
  52. Would their removal have created extra risks?
  53. What were the warning signs that these were low priority activities?
  54. How could these be identified in the future?
  55. Why did they make no difference?
  56. Project successes
  57. What was successful?
  58. How was it successful?
  59. Why was it successful?
  60. What signs of success were evident during development?
  61. How this can be repeated the next time?
  62. Could it be improved yet again?