Annex A—Lessons-learned meeting agenda template

Guidelines for the lessons learned meeting

Description: This guideline is designed to help in the completion of lessons learned documentation for a project, which includes all the phases of National Project Management System (NPMS). The lessons learned meeting should be held shortly after project completion/ client move-in. It is suggested that the Project Leader chair the meeting (Project Manager for other government department (OGD) projects), with all Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) team members invited to attend. Client participation is highly recommended. Depending on the size and scope of the project the team may wish to include the landlord (if applicable), consultant, contractor and other stakeholders.

The purpose of the meeting is to review the outcome of the project, assess the status of any outstanding items, and review the lessons learned. The discussion would include the project in general, identifying areas of change or improvement for the next project (“lessons learned”), the on-going work requirements, and/or plans for future work on the project. Refer to section 7.1.3 (Step 3) of the National Project Management System Directive on lessons learned for real property projects.

Items to consider are: The NPMS deliverables and control points, project administration, change orders, schedule, costing information, security, commissioning, NPMS knowledge areas specifically relating to the project and other information.

The lessons-learned meeting provides a good opportunity for the Chair to distribute the lessons-learned log or report template for discussion.

The agenda can use the following suggested topics (see the checklist at section 4 of Annex C—Lessons-learned report template of the National Project Management System Directive on lessons learned for real property projects, for additional items):

1. Close out document checklist: is it completed and are all required documents accounted for?
2. Performance indicators: did the project finish on budget, on scope, on time? If not, what were the reasons?
3. Did the project meet its business outcomes (benefit realizations)? The question to answer here is: did completing this project result in benefits to the client?
4. Outstanding project items (follow the close out document checklist)
5. Project lessons learned: discuss lessons learned at each stage of the project.This could be in the form of a checklist/writing format. While having this discussion, identify lessons learned that are to be shared with the Regional Gatekeeper and local management.
6. Summary of lessons learned and issues that can be improved in the future: PSPC, Client, Landlord (if applicable), Consultant, Contractor, Other.
7. Round table