it's important for project managers and team members to take
stock at the end of a project and develop a list of lessons
learned so that they don't repeat their mistakes in the next
project. Typically such reviews are called post-project
reviews or "post mortems." I recommend a two step process
for conducting these reviews:
First prepare and circulate a whole bunch of specific
questions about the project and give team members time to
think about them and prepare their responses individually.
Next, hold a meeting and discuss the team's responses to the
questions. The result of this discussion is often a list of
"Lessons Learned
The benefit of the first step, done individually by team
members, is that it allows the quieter, more analytical
people to develop their responses to the questions without
being interrupted by the more outgoing, vocal types who
might otherwise dominate in the face-to-face meeting. Also,
it allows everyone the time to create more thoughtful responses.