Capturing lessons learned is crucial in refining and enhancing project management practices. Microsoft 365 offers an organized and efficient approach to gathering, analyzing, and applying the insights gained from past projects.
Let’s explore three straightforward steps to help you use Microsoft 365 and Power Platform project management to capture valuable lessons and integrate them into your future project planning and execution.
1. Close the Project Site
Correctly concluding a project involves more than completing tasks; it includes closing the project site in Power Apps. This step is critical to ensure accurate project reporting and clarity in portfolio dashboards.
If left open, the project site may continue to generate data, potentially leading to confusion or misinterpretation in ongoing reports.
However, it’s essential to approach the closure with foresight. Rather than hastily archiving or hiding the site, consider keeping it available for a period. This approach allows project managers and team members to revisit the site for valuable insights and data that can inform the planning and execution of future projects.
The site can be a resource for best practices, lessons learned, and successful templates. It is a valuable asset in continuously improving project management processes.
Therefore, thoughtful management of the project site’s closure in Power Apps can significantly contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of subsequent projects.
2. Capture Lessons Learned
Capturing lessons learned is integral to the project’s growth and development. Conducting lessons-learned sessions at crucial project milestones and closures provides an opportunity to reflect, learn, and apply valuable insights for future endeavors.
What went well and what can we learn from that?
This question focuses on the successes of the project. Identifying these positive aspects boosts team morale and helps replicate these successes in future projects.
Recognizing effective strategies, techniques, or team dynamics contributing to the project’s success is crucial for establishing a framework of best practices.
What didn’t go so well and what can we learn from that?
Conversely, this question delves into the challenges faced during the project.
Understanding the root causes of setbacks or inefficiencies is essential for continuous improvement. This introspection helps avoid similar pitfalls in future projects and refine processes and strategies.
What should we do to improve our next project?
This forward-looking question encourages a proactive approach to future projects. It’s about translating insights from successes and challenges into actionable strategies for upcoming ventures.
Participation from all project members is vital in these sessions to ensure that feedback and recommendations are comprehensive and encompass all project areas.
Methods of Collecting Feedback
- Survey: Utilizing surveys is an efficient way to gather feedback from a large group. It allows team members to thoughtfully consider and articulate their views on the project, leading to a more thorough and reflective assessment.
- Meeting: Meetings offer a platform for open, face-to-face discussions, enabling more dynamic and interactive feedback. They are especially compelling in smaller groups or when nuanced, complex topics must be unpacked collaboratively.
- Meeting and Survey: Combining surveys with meetings can optimize the feedback process. The survey responses can guide the focus of the meeting discussions, ensuring that critical issues are addressed comprehensively.
3. Update Project Templates with BrightWork 365
Streamlining project management processes becomes straightforward with Microsoft 365, Power Platform and BrightWork 365. After project completion, assess the changes made to your project site. These insights are vital for enhancing future projects.
Use BrightWork 365 project management software to apply these lessons to your project templates. You can do this in two ways:
- Use Content templates
- Update and save new templates with Form Configurator
The distinctive features in BrightWork 365 Content Template and Form Configuration facilitate the swift and seamless integration of these updates into all new project sites. This efficient method ensures that each subsequent project benefits from the collective knowledge and experiences gained in previous endeavors, fostering consistency and continual improvement across your organizational projects.
Content Templates
BrightWork 365 gives you the option to create a special type of template from an existing project that will include the content from that project – these templates are calledContent Templates.
The content copied over to the template will include content from the tabs Stages, Deliverables, Tasks, Issues, Risks, and Project Settings. This is a great way to give your project colleagues a head start creating projects using best practice templates from other similar projects.
Form Configurator
The Form Configurator tool provides Template Editors with the ability to hide or show Project Template Form Tabs, Sections, and Columns with point and click ease.
The Form Configurator allows users to adjust the amount of process in projects, and to better focus on the most relevant project elements. You can think of it as a map of the form that is behind the template.
