My wife (also a project manager) needed to design a lessons learned template to be used at her organisation for post project reviews. She asked me for my help and I was only too happy to oblige.
For the greater good I share my Lessons Learned/Post Project Review document template here – feel free to make use of it yourself, just promise to post a comment and tell us about your project!
Lessons Learned / Post Project Review – Template
- Project Objective
State briefly what the project was about.
E.g. This was a six month project to realise cost savings for the operations department through the delivery of a new automated invoicing system
- Project Outcome
What was the end result. Did it work, did it happen? Again, keep this brief.
The project was delivered one month later than the original schedule, but there was high client satisfaction due to additional functionality delivered in the new system and zero post project defects.
- Risks and Issues Review
Four sections as follows:
a. Risks successfully mitigated
What risks were identified at the start of the project and successfully mitigated before they became an issue.
Here table form is probably most effective
| Risk Name | Criticality (H/M/L) | Mitigation/Outcome |
| There was a high risk that the project subject matter expert (SME) was going to leave for another role outside the firm | H | New contract and salary offered to employee to remain on board until project end |
b. Issues successfully mitigated
Risks that actually became real issues but were successfully closed out. Again table form is probably best to present this list
c. Issues not mitigated
Identified issues which were not closed out. Why were they not closed out? Could anything have been done differently?
d. Unforeseen risks and issues
Why were these not anticipated by the project manager or project sponsor? What lessons were learned. Could anything have been done differently.
<END OF TEMPLATE>
Further notes:
The lessons learned document should ideally be no more than one A4 page in length. If anything merits further discussion this should be undertaken in the form of a post project review (meeting or conference call with stakeholder representatives from all groups involved in delivering and realising the benefit of the projects, as well as the sponsors). This discussion should be minuted and the notes published to the attendees.