Really big project mistakes. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Everyone makes project mistakes. Even a seasoned project manager can’t deliver a trouble-free project. There are always bumps along the way. The key is to learn from them and improve your efforts for the next project rather than claiming incompetence of your project team. 
Since everyone makes mistakes, I thought it best to learn from these mistakes in hopes to minimize our own. Let’s take a closer look at 2 blogs examining Project Manager’s lessons learned.
#1) 5 project management lessons learned at the overnight web challenge – Teams of 10 web pro’s work on developing a website in 24 hours as a challenge. Their efforts are successful, but the lessons observed are even better:
- Dive deep early, save time later – learn about the project before you start the work
- Designate a decider – You need someone who can make decisions quickly
- Know your limits – Ensure you and your client agree on the scope of the project at the beginning
- More isn’t always better – “Two people working on the same aspect isn’t always most efficient.”
- Hide your mess – No need to show your behind the scenes mess to the client until it’s been tidied up
#2) 9 lessons learned in project management – An important part of any project is the Lessons Learned meeting. This blog by Sorin Fiscu does a great job of laying out the Do’s and Don’ts for the Lessons Learned meeting. My favourite learning is #1: At the Lessons Learned meeting, give everybody the chance to nominate a good, a bad and an ugly fact about the project. Everybody must contribute with an idea before moving on.
Lessons learned is about always improving. The next time you do a project, be sure to write down your own lessons learned along the way. Armed with those lessons, and the one’s above, you’ll be well on your way to finding a better, more efficient way to do things the second time around.
Is there something missing, add your lessons learned in the comments section below, or shout out to us on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, you could always write your own blog post on the subject and share it with us… We’d love to read it!
