Lessons learned in Project Management
In good project management, it is very important that the project manager with the help of the project team capture and document for historical reference the experiences encountered during the course of carrying out a project. These experiences whether positive or negative or from past or present projects, are very vital to process maturity and improvement and are hence incorporated into future project management procedures.[6] This idea of project management via lessons learned/ past experience tool is very vital to the success of a company or organisation with regards to the performance of present and most importantly future projects. This is because it helps many project managers across organisations to be much more successful in future projects with minimal effort necessary.[7]Hence it can be the gap between a landmark project success and missing key milestones and project delays[8] In many organisations and companies such as IT, telecommunications, construction etc, the projects undertaken normally have similar components as previous projects, therefore it is the responsibility of the Project manager to capture, and share the lessons learnt. It may guarantee the next or another project manager his position.[8] The value of lessons learnt cannot be over emphasised in good project management practise even though current company trends might suggest the limited use of this tool. Its importance is due to the fact that project managers working on similar projects normally experience the same sort of issues and obstacles and therefore it becomes imperative that the ways in which these obstacles where tackled are communicated and shared amongst them. This ensures that their reoccurrence is averted, hence saving the company the cost of project delay, budget overrun and dissatisfied customers.[8] A lessons learnt process in project management is most likely to be an intricate constituent of the quality management