Improving the Lesson Learned Process: A Proposal for Case Company

Abstract

Topic of this thesis was to propose a process improvement on the current lesson learned process for case company’s project organization. This topic concerns many organizations; lesson learned process is a crucial element or a tool that companies utilise to avoid repeating mistakes, create best practises, share knowledge and improve their processes and performance.

Case Company had a need to create a standardized lesson learned process for the business to continuously add value and improve performance. Case company wanted to ensure that things learned in the past would be shared and implemented into practise widely in the organization. Business challenge was that the existing lesson learned process appeared to be insufficient and it was not clear how lessons learned were implemented into practise. The company wanted to improve and standardize the process to address this issue.

Approach in this thesis was to concentrate on the project lifecycle and process, in addition to the lesson learned process. This study was based on literature research concentrating on theory of knowledge management around lesson learned process. Co-operation with instructors from case company was also in important role. After this study and review of the current lesson learned process, it was clear that there were areas to develop. This work resulted in several practical and detailed approaches on how the case company could improve the lesson learned process.