1 [Insert Project name]
2 [Insert Project number]
Lessons Learned Workshop
Agenda
Contents
1 Document Control 3
1.1 Document History 3
1.2 Review Panel 3
1.3 Approvals 3
1.4 Supporting Documents 3
2 Project Summary 4
3 Lessons Learned Workshop Agenda 5
1.0 Document Control
Document History
Date Version Author Comments
Review Panel
Review Panel
Name Role
Approvals
Version Approval Date Approver Details
Supporting Documents
Document Location Owner
2.0 Project Summary
The project is summarised as follows:
Project Title
Project Number
Project Sponsor
Approval Body
Approved Budget
Project Lead
3.0 Lessons Learned Workshop Agenda
INTRODUCTION: Lessons Learned Meeting Agenda
The agenda template is shown on the following page.
What This Is
An example agenda for a half-day lessons learned meeting at the end of a project (sometimes called a
Project Closeout Meeting). It includes:
who should attend
meeting objectives
meeting deliverables
agenda items, showing a suggested sequence of team discussion, brainstorming, and analysis
by which the team can agree upon what went well on the project, what didn’t, and what should
be done differently next time
Why It’s Useful
The only way to avoid problems happening yet again in the future is carefully consider what went
wrong and why, and make sure there is a way to transfer related recommendations forward. Likewise,
teams can help others repeat their successes only if they somehow can express concretely what went
well, and why. The specific lessons and recommendations generated in this kind of meeting will yield
concrete actions for other teams.
How to Use It
1) Edit the example agenda subjects to reflect any specific areas or descriptions of what your meeting
should cover. Adjust the timeslots for a longer or shorter meeting depending on your project and
how much discussion you think will be needed.
2) Adjust the attendee list to include specific names and their departments/functional groups, to help
ensure that you’re inviting everyone that should be there.
3) Check this draft invitee list with your core team and solicit ideas for who else should be invited.
Often team members will think of key individuals who might have been a heavy participant at some
point, with valuable information to relay. For instance, “We should invite Joe. He had to deal with
all those problems in production; he’ll be able to talk about impact and what we should have done
differently in the design.”
4) Allow enough time ahead of the meeting to allow the project manager and others to gather or
compile information for reference. For example, during the first part of the meeting, the team
reviews the original planned major milestone dates vs. the dates those milestones were actually
achieved. That information should be brought to the meeting rather than creating it from memory
on the spot.
5) Send out the agenda, with appropriate statements about the importance of attendance by all
invitees and expectations about ‘tone’ and spirit of the meeting. (Specifically, lessons learned
meetings must be objective and professional – no “blame games” allowed.)
Example Outline for an End-of-Project Lessons Learned Meeting
Agenda: Company X Project Y Lessons Learned Meeting
8:30 a.m. to 12 noon November 21, 20xx
Attendees:
Project Manager and core team members from each functional group
Other key functional representatives who were heavily involved in the project; their functional
managers as desired, or as specifically requested by the Project Manager or Project Sponsor
Project sponsor
Meeting Objectives:
1. Understand how this project performed against its original goals (time, resources/costs, scope).
2. Identify Project Y “lessons learned” and recommendations for future projects.
3. Set actions to ensure lessons learned are considered during planning of next year’s program.
Deliverables from Meeting:
Full report including:
Review and analysis of plan vs. actual milestone achievement and state of what we delivered vs.
the original requirements
Team’s brainstorm list of wins and challenges
Team’s list of derived recommendations for achieving the wins and avoiding the challenges on
future projects
Open issues list and action items
Key items will be turned into templates and checklists for use during projects.
Agenda Item Facilitator(s) Time
Get breakfast, introduction, agenda review, ground rules
Wins and challenges
Project retrospective: Review planned vs. actual on major milestones and
how what we released mapped to original major requirements.
Round-robin brainstorm: Go around the table and record a win or
challenge from each person. Keep going until no one else has items to
add.
Map back to major project issues—which challenges contributed most to
milestone and vision shortfalls? Which wins contributed most to what the
project accomplished?
Break
Create lessons learned recommendations
Wins: what do we think other projects should do to achieve these wins?
Challenges: how should future projects avoid each issue we identified?
Next steps
Discuss how lessons learned recommendations will be brought to kickoff
activities for next year’s development program.
Review action items and finalize assignments.
