I’ve usesd a lot of project management software and the key ingredient missing from all of them is a way to document and identify best practices for each of the projects. Clay Shirky says: The best way to learn something is when someone else figures it out and
tells you: “Don’t go in that swamp. There are alligators in there.”

When starting a new project there are always lessons that were learned in previous projects that could be applied. However, these are usually relearned each time. Especially if there are different teams working on each of the projects.

I’ve always found doing a “Lessons Learned” after each project to be helpful in capturing some of the best practices. This can be a simple process involving just typing up some basic questions and answers such as:

• Description of the project
• What were three things that went wrong during the project and why did they go wrong?
• How could they be prevented in the future?
• What were three things that went right during the project and why?
• How can they be replicated on future projects?

It’s important to ask these questions both internally and with the client. Often what went wrong and what went right are very different based on who you ask.