Historical knowledge of projects completed in a company is a very valuable guide for a global project manager. In particu- lar, lessons learned from historical projects can shed light and show the right path to avoid making the same mistake over and over again. As project managers, during execution of a global project, we always run into issues with specifications, schedules, budgets, team members, company upper management, cus- tomers, regulatory agencies, foreign governments, subcontrac- tors, inspectors, suppliers, and so on. As we get ready to close out a project, we should compile all the lessons learned from that project along with actions taken and results achieved in a report. We should release this report in document control. We should also present pertinent sections of this report to our team members, to our upper management, to our customers, and to our subcontractors.
The lessons learned report for a completed project was a requirement for a company that I worked for. Reviewing these reports about a customer’s previous projects gave me a very good understanding of what I should be prepared for in deal- ing with this particular customer. In particular, my customer’s unannounced audits of man- hours and materials charged to my project surprised me a lot. My customer’s auditors came to our company unannounced and reviewed our charge records for every one of their previous projects. As a project manager I had never
experienced unannounced auditor visits before. We had had sev- eral issues with this company with incorrect charges in the past. So I started to check our charge records every two weeks and made the necessary corrections with our accounting department. I was audited unannounced twice by my customer’s auditors during the execution of my project for man- hours and material charges. They found everything in order and our accounting department and I received good pats on the back.
In another offshore oil platform equipment design project, pol- lution control laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations were very detailed and complicated. Pollution control involved several gov- ernment agencies such as the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Coast Guard. I reviewed my company’s historical doc- uments related to similar past projects and discussed pollution control procedures with seasoned engineers who worked on previ- ous similar projects. I formulated a very thorough plan to prevent pollution during the execution of my project. I trained my team members as to what to do in case of undesirable and uncontrolled spills and leaks. Every member of my team was very diligent in pollution prevention while performing his or her task.
Another useful lesson that I learned was in dealing with mate- rial safety data sheets for chemicals that were used in one of my projects. My customer paid lots of attention to material safety data sheets for all chemicals used in my project. From historical infor- mation, I prepared a list of laboratories certified by my customer that could issue material safety data sheets. I put together a data sheet form that was acceptable to my customer’s project manager. In my project schedule, I included all dates for when I had to sub- mit samples to certified laboratories and when material safety data sheets were due to my customer.
Lessons learned information was crucial for a customer’s design review process. What had surprised us during design review meetings in the past? What kind of issues had we encoun- tered during meetings? How did we deal with incomplete and missing information? Did we have any specification clarification issues? How did we deal with a customer’s instantaneous add- ons to the project? One thing I learned was to take a time-out from the meeting or call for a break, if an unanswerable question or request popped up. Then I huddled with my team in private and we collectively decided on an answer in a calm environment before facing my customer with an answer.
In another lessons learned case, I found out that a particu- lar final inspector always randomly checked torques of several bolts on equipment being inspected. I asked my manufacturing manager to go over and verify each bolt’s torque on every piece of equipment that was ready for inspection before the inspector arrived. In the past, this final inspector also randomly checked paint thickness on every surface of the equipment. Also, in the past, there had been several issues with this final inspector not signing off our equipment, but at the end of my project we were ready for him. We inspected every piece of our equipment to be shipped just as he would have inspected it. We made a couple of touch- ups and corrections as needed. The final inspector was very surprised not to find any issues with our equipment during his final inspection. I was thankful for my company’s lessons learned documents.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS PROJECT EVENT
• Do not forget to release your “Lessons Learned” report in your document control during the closure phase of your project.
• Present “Lessons Learned” from your project to your team members, to your upper management, to your cus- tomers, and to your subcontractors before interest in your project fades away.
Case 1.11: The Effect of an Outside Consulting Firm