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Post-Project Reflection (Lessons Learned)

Post-project reflection (Project Retrospective or Lessons Learned) Post-project reflection is the phase of analysis and learning that takes place at the completion or closure of a major project phase, and unlike rapid incident and release analysis (AAR), post-project reflection covers the long life cycle of a project and evaluates both the technical, organizational, managerial and financial aspects of the work.

The main task is to translate the experience gained by one project team into the institutional knowledge of the entire company in order to improve the accuracy of planning and the quality of future projects.

What should be analyzed in retrospect of the project?

According to the project management standards (including the PMBOK), quality post-project analysis should cover the following blocks:

Achieving goals and criteria for success: How well the product is matched to the original vision and customer requirements, causes of the deviation.
Compliance with deadlines and milestones (Schedule): Analysis of delays in the critical path of the project: Were the deadlines realistic?
Budget and Effort (Budget & Effort): Comparison of planned budget and actual expenditure/man-hours: Identification of the causes of overspending.
Change history (Change Log): Chronology of changes to the baseline plan: How often did the requirements change and why?
Risk management: What risks from the registry worked, what measures helped, and what risks were unexpected.
Team dynamics and communications: Interaction within the team and with external counterparties, contractors, customers.

Stages of post-project reflection

Step 1. Collect feedback (Asynchronous survey)

Immediately after the work is completed (before the final meeting), a questionnaire is sent to all participants, which allows you to collect detailed, unbiased opinions of people until they forget the details, questions can be qualitative (what happened, what was the difficulty) and quantitative (evaluating processes on a scale from 1 to 5).

Step 2: Data preparation

The project manager or CM collects the analytics: actual charts, financial reports, quality metrics, survey results, and then forms the basis for the discussion.

Step 3: Retrospective Meeting (Retrospective Meeting)

Live or online discussion with the entire team (sometimes involving key stakeholders)

Tools: Using a Miro, FigJam or physical board with columns: “What went well”, “What caused difficulties”, “Ideas and improvements for the future”.
Role: It is highly desirable to have an independent facilitator (such as a PM from a nearby project or a Scrum master) so that the meeting does not slid into recriminations or self-justification.

Step 4: Lessons Learned Register (Lessons Learned Register)

All validated findings are recorded in a knowledge base in a special structured registry, each lesson should have attributes: area of knowledge, description of the situation, lessons learned, recommendations for the future.

Step 5: System changes (Close the loop)

Lessons will not be useful if they remain just text, and the real victory is an update based on the lessons learned.

Project Evaluation Templates (estimators)
Checklists for launching new projects.
Technological stack or architectural standards.
Rules of work with contractors.

Template for collecting project lessons

General matters: What is your estimate of a 1-5 success rate? Why?
Requirements management: Did the requirements change unpredictably during the project? What helped?
Tools and technologies: Were there any problems with the technology used? What should we consider next time?
Communications: Were there enough information for you to work with? Were there any barriers to communication?
Three major successes: What did we do amazingly and should we do it again?
Three main problems: What is the biggest obstacle and how to get around it in the future?

Useful materials and references

Back to the Future: How Retrospectives Help to Build the Future - excellent analysis of the retrospective process on real cases of the project IT company, the role of participants and the frequency of the event.
How Retrospective Changes Teams in IT, Business and Life A detailed Habre article on the benefits of regular, continuous reflection sessions (every 1-2 weeks, quarter, year) to overcome organizational sabotage and long-term growth.
How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse and Inspire a Team to Sprint A practical article on Habre detailing the scenario of an interactive and motivating retrospective after heavy sprints.
Lessons learned on the project (post mortem) A practical guide from a project management expert on keeping a Lessons Learned Register.
Lessons learned: what is it and how to prepare? A detailed description of the structure of the Lessons Learned final document for the project in accordance with PMBOK standards.
Retrospectives in project teams: what it is, why it is necessary and how to effectively conduct - practical experience of conducting retrospectives using interactive online whiteboards.
Recording lessons learned in project management A detailed article from Asana on the three steps of identifying lessons and brainstorming.