One of the very popular and most used techniques is agile project management. Agile project management is a repetitive or iterative approach in which work done is delivered in small chunks to enhance the efficiency and agility of the overall project.
The true benefit of an iterative process can be seen in the agile technique as continuous project deliverables are released and feedback is added in the next deliverable. Since an ongoing collaboration and constant focus of business value is promoted through agile.
Every project team has some success story and some drawback story to tell the juniors, colleagues, and other departments. These stories become lessons learned not only for the project team but for all the upcoming projects too. Agile project management also has some lessons learned in the entire process and timeline of the project.
These lessons become prerequisites for the next projects to avoid any glitches and mistakes.
This article will focus on the importance and benefits of lessons learned from agile project management.
“Lessons learned” indicate the project outcomes, failure, and success
Agile project management uses the iterative and repetitive process of adding new feedback and improvements in every upcoming deliverable. This is the reason why lessons learned have to be saved in the form of documents at every step. These lessons are key points highlighting the focus areas where a certain decision was made and it either worked or did not work.
So in the form of an experience, these lessons are saved. For agile project management, a lesson learned document is of great importance because it indicates the project outcomes at various stages of the life cycle.
Help In Future Mistakes Prevention
When a project manager has saved all the experience no matter they worked or not. This way a roadmap is crafted for future projects that guide the team and new project managers to opt for the ways by which past mistakes can be prevented.
The lessons obtained are endeavors of past decisions. By documenting them future mistakes are mitigated and somewhat prevented.
Mitigate The Risk Of Any Resource Leakage
The most important aspect of any project is the management of resources; cost, time, budget, and human efforts. When in the form of past lessons they have a document that keeps them aware of possible resource leakages, they tend to make informed and rational business decisions.
Though all projects have inherent risk in them still these risks can be prevented by keeping past experiences in view.
Helps In Decreasing Scope Creep
Sometimes in meeting the project requirements the scope has crept and the team runs out of the scope. Thus, for successful scope and requirement management, a document must be handy.
Lessons learned document help in keeping the team focused within the scope. Unnesseciry changes and requirements alterations of past events can make impact the decision making of new projects and therefore, getting out of scope will no more trouble.
Foster The Culture Of Knowledge Sharing
By sharing the past experiences and project outcomes in form of lessons learned documents, A culture of knowledge sharing thrive.
At the organizational level, a common database of all the project’s success factors, failure causes, possible outcomes, and impact of different decisions are collectively handed out to future teams.
This way organizational efficiency and profitability are enhanced at core levels.
Generate New Knowledge Base For Future Projects
Project management refers to the managing of resources; time, budget, human efforts, and requirements of any project from scratch to the enclosure of the project. Since project management has evolved.
Now different types of techniques and project designs are followed depending upon the need and requirements. A common knowledge base is created in the form of lessons learned from each project.
Thus for upcoming projects, managers and teams follow a certain protocol while managing the project. Also, this knowledge helps the teams in similar project handling in the future.
Lessons Learned Help In Keeping The Track Of The Project Portfolio
Lessons learned help managers in keeping the checklist of project success rate, profitability, efficiency, coordination, requirements, and teamwork.
This way an overall process of project management is edged with the help of knowledge generations and experience formation.