Guide to Lessons Learned in Project Management

By Kate Eby | May 6, 2021

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Lessons learned from past projects are tools you can use as a project manager to drive improvement within your team. We’ve compiled expert advice on how to collect, document, and apply lessons learned toward future endeavors. 

In this article, you’ll find a sample lessons learned report , a midproject survey example, and a downloadable report template .

What Are Lessons Learned in Project Management?

The term lessons learned refers to the experience you gain by participating in and completing a project. A team should apply past lessons learned at the beginning of a new venture and compile new findings during and after its completion.

While it is essential to collect lessons learned at the end of a project, it might be beneficial to gather input while in the middle of one as well.

To find out about free project management lessons learned templates for project managers, product managers, project coordinators, moderators, project sponsors, and more, refer to our  Free Project Management Lessons Learned Templates article. 

What Is the Purpose of Lessons Learned?

The purpose of documenting and applying the lessons learned is to encourage improvement in best practices for future projects. The goal is to create a team that learns from its missteps and repeats and improves its successes.

Patti Armanini is a Quality Manager with Festo USA and has more than a decade of experience in management. She encourages project managers to “review past lessons learned to avoid making similar mistakes the next time around. But [it is] just as important to leverage the wins going forward, to help streamline the project, and to help remove impediments before they happen.” 

A successful project manager recognizes the processes that help and hinder a team. They can also implement the lessons they have learned to improve those processes continually. 

Seek input on lessons learned from everyone involved in a project. Team members at all levels within the hierarchy have essential contributions to the discussion, and it is wise to gather as much information from as many people as possible. This process can even be a team-building experience in itself, as everyone makes themselves heard.

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Lessons Learned Process in Project Management

The Project Management Institute (PMI) outlines its Lessons Learned Process in Project Management in five steps.

  • Identify Identify the items you can learn from. This should include areas for improvement, as well as emphasis on what your team has done well. Example: The team identifies that they could not deliver results by the deadline in Phase Two. Results were due two weeks from the receipt of the brief, but were delivered in three weeks.
  • Document Document and create a list of the lessons learned. This list should be a group effort and contain input from all team members. Example: Include the missed deadline on the list, along with the other items brought up by the team.
  • Analyze Analyze the lessons learned, create a report, and share it with team members and other applicable parties. Sometimes, you will need to create multiple reports with the pertinent information for different audiences. Example: More time should have been scheduled for the results to be delivered in Phase Two. (Note: Include this information in the team and management reports, but not the shareholder reports, as it is irrelevant for them because the team completed the job on time.)
  • Store Organize and store these reports in a location that is accessible to all interested parties, usually on a drive or in cloud storage. Example: Catalog these reports on the shared drive using the company’s standard naming process.
  • Retrieve Use keywords when storing your reports to make them easier to search for and retrieve for future projects. Example: When finalizing the schedule for upcoming projects, search keywords like deadline to find references to past lessons learned about realistic timelines for completed projects.

What Is a Lessons Learned Document?

A lessons learned document is the collected results of surveys and team member input throughout the lifecycle of a project. Create a process for gathering input at key points throughout the project, then record and use it to create detailed reports.

It is important to record these initial observations, so you can access them later. This document contains the raw data you will use to write your reports.

How to Document Lessons Learned

A project manager is responsible for documenting and identifying lessons learned throughout the lifecycle of a task or project. A successful project manager will utilize the following strategies:

  • Decide on the metrics you want to document for your reports. These can be expected outcomes vs. results, actionable items, or opportunities for building upon the lessons from previous projects. 
  • Ask the team what went well and what can be improved. Administer a survey or record responses when meeting with the team. 
  • Organize these responses into a document that’s easy to read and reference. These documents should later be used to create your lessons learned report(s). 
  • Collect and store these documents for reference in future projects. These should be stored on a cloud server or a shared drive so that they are accessible for future reference to all members of the team at any time.

You and future teams will use this feedback to learn from your experience. It is important to create processes that streamline the capture and sharing of this information.

How to Capture Lessons Learned in Project Management

A great way to capture lessons learned is by surveying the people working on and observing the project. You might find that you can extract more diverse responses by administering a survey during a project instead of only after it ends. 

One benefit of a midproject survey is that you can identify and correct issues before they become a real problem. Armanini helped create this sample of a midproject survey for project managers:

Midproject Survey Lessons Learned

Another excellent way to capture comments from the team is to hold lessons learned meetings, sometimes called a post-mortem. For more information about post-mortems , read our guide to running a post-mortem and download free post-mortem templates .

How to Run a Lessons Learned Meeting

Lessons learned meetings can occur at any point during a project. During the meeting, your team should share feedback about what went well and what needs improvement. These meetings are also an effective team-building activity, as they are more collaborative than conducting individual surveys. 

Your lessons learned meetings should all follow a similar format and usually begin with a stated agenda. Let your team know what you will cover and what you expect them to contribute. Next, encourage a robust group discussion of the lessons learned during the project, and make sure that you have assigned someone to take the minutes. This discussion should include a critical evaluation of the lessons learned and a plan for how to utilize them in future projects. 

To learn more, read our guide on how to conduct a lessons learned meeting .

How to Write a Lessons Learned Report in Project Management

One of the most critical steps in applying lessons learned is creating lessons learned reports. The purpose of writing a lessons learned report is to consolidate the input from your team and present it to an audience in a concise and legible way.

Step by Step: Write a Lessons Learned Report

When writing a report, consider the following:

  • Determine the audience for your report. Is this report for stakeholders or project team members? Team member reports will focus more on the day-to-day operations within the project, whereas stakeholders’ reports will highlight the big picture.
  • Identify the lessons learned in your document that are important to your audience. Organize your survey responses and feedback by the type of report they apply to. Many responses might end up in more than one kind of report.
  • Summarize lessons learned. Offer suggestions for improvements to processes. Also make sure to identify what went well.
  • Distribute and store the report. Create a folder in the cloud or on a shared drive for reference and for use in future projects.

Lessons Learned Report Sample

Lessons Learned Report Template

Download Completed Lessons Learned Sample Report 

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF  | Smartsheet

You can use the above sample lessons learned report to display the conclusions from your surveys and meetings, as well as your own observations as a project manager. Download the completed version and use it for reference. You can also edit and customize it based on information that is important to your audience. 

Lessons Learned Report Example

Download Blank Lessons Learned Template

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF 

Download a blank version of the template for your needs.

How to Share Lessons Learned

The best way to share your findings is to create specific reports for varying engagement levels. The goal of creating a lessons learned report is to distribute your group’s findings among a targeted audience.

  • What to Give Stakeholders: Stakeholders should see the larger scope of a project. They will be interested in things like budgetary concerns and profit margins, long-term timelines and deadlines, and your project’s alignment with other goals within the industry.
  • What to Give Team Members: Team members are interested in the day-to-day operations of a project. Give them a report with an emphasis on individual deadlines (both made and missed), team cohesion and communication, and overall success of the project. Make sure to let them know what they did well, too.
  • Store Reports in a Central Repository: You should store reports in a fully accessible database, such as a shared drive or cloud storage, so that different members of the organization can reference them at any time.
  • Create a Project Lessons List: Create a basic outline of your findings, without going into excess detail. This list can be shared with a wider audience, perhaps through email or a company newsletter.

What Are Examples of Lessons Learned in a Project?

Every completed project provides experience to the people working on it, whether or not it was a success. These lessons can be universal or specific to the task. Below are examples of lessons learned for different levels in an organization.

Examples of Lessons Learned for Project Managers:

  • Support Your Team: Delegate tasks appropriately and enforce realistic deadlines. Foster an environment that encourages collaboration.
  • Communicate Clearly: Check in often with the team and keep communication lines open. Be clear with your expectations.
  • Give Praise Often: Let your team know when they have done something well. As Armanini says, “Don’t forget to reward yourself for those wins!”

Examples of Lessons Learned for Team Members:

  • Ask for Advice: Ask for the input you need from leaders and teammates. 
  • Check In Often: Communicate effectively with all levels of project involvement, and update your manager(s) at regular intervals.
  • Improve Your Work: Take feedback and use it to improve. This will help you learn from your missteps and grow your successes.

Examples of Lessons Learned for Company Leadership:

  • Outline the Big Picture: Clearly define your expectations. Consider budget and time concerns early on in the project’s lifecycle.
  • Insure Against Risk: Examine areas of high risk. Attempt to stay ahead of large-scale delays.
  • Educate Your Team: Use your continuing experience (and that of those around you) to improve processes at every level.

Why Are Lessons Learned Important in Project Management?

Organizations that capture and utilize lessons learned from past projects can more easily avoid mistakes, repeat their successes, and minimize risks on future work. Project managers play an integral role in this process and enable their teams to thrive.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , about half of all new businesses fail in the first five years. A company that commits to documenting and improving its processes stands a much better chance of survival than one that does not. Hiring and retaining stellar project managers ensures that these processes will continuously improve.

Benefits of Lessons Learned in Project Management

By identifying lessons learned, you can capitalize on your successes and take note of your mistakes. Additional benefits of lessons learned in project management include the following:

  • Learn from Experience: Capitalize on your success and avoid past mistakes. “Record lessons learned in real time so that you don’t forget anything along the way,” suggests Armanini.
  • Identify Areas of Inefficiency: Eliminate redundant processes and streamline future endeavours. Get rid of anything that is not helping the team achieve its goals.
  • Document Your Processes: Allow future teams to use your expertise to their advantage. Share your knowledge with those who come after you.
  • Demonstrate Growth: Demonstrate productivity and results with organized reports that date back to past projects. Compare those to reports in the future to track your progress or identify places where you still get hung up.
  • Foster More Cohesive Teams: Increase morale by achieving more wins as a team. 
  • Improve Communication: Involve your team in the process from day one. Encourage them to stay involved by listening to their input.
  • Establish Best Practices: Figure out what works best for your team, then implement and enforce those changes.

Challenges with Lessons Learned in Projects

When you implement lessons learned processes with your team, you will likely run across some challenges. Here are some examples of challenges that project managers face:

  • Future Implementation: It can be challenging to implement the lessons you have learned to future projects. “Being a quality professional, for things that didn't go so well, I tend to lean toward root cause, corrective action (RCCA), and 8D-type investigation. Both methods state the problem, identify causes, and then propose corrections to eliminate or reduce the causes, all in a structured format,” explains Armanini. To learn more about root cause analysis and download free root cause templates, read “ Free Root Cause Analysis Templates: The Complete Collection .”
  • Time Management: When you’re under a tight deadline, finding time to gather your team’s comments can seem impossible. Make sure to factor in opportunities to collect and analyze lessons learned data so that you don’t leave them out.
  • Organization: Armanini reflects on changes her company made when organizing their lessons learned data. “At first, it was handwritten notes on pre-filled questionnaires or in notebooks or notes on a whiteboard or flipchart, then photos of the notes for future reference. To stay more organized, we have started using Microsoft Teams and a OneNote page.”
  • Blame: “Make your questionnaire anonymous for a team not used to sharing bad things,” advises Armanini. Avoid placing the blame for mistakes on any one member of the team. Furthermore, she says, “Try to find someone to facilitate your session. If I'm running the session, it needs to be with a team that trusts me fully to get honest feedback. Especially if it is a project that did not go very well, use a facilitator. It can help to take some of the emotion out of the session.”

How to Apply Lessons Learned

The most crucial step in applying lessons learned to future projects is identifying those lessons in the first place. Create a system of surveying and collaborating on input with your team, and make sure that you record these responses so that you can access them later. Organize it by team, by task, or by the system most pertinent to you.

Establish timely check-ins with your team members. Hold informal gatherings in between formal meetings, and create a system of collecting weekly or monthly feedback, depending on the scope of your project. You can use these evaluations to check against past lessons learned and to identify new ones as they arise.

Don’t be afraid to implement lessons learned within the same project, rather than waiting until the next one. In fact, one sign of an effective project manager is knowing when you need to nudge a process in a different direction. Use the collected lessons from your institution to guide your team to success.

Best Practices for Lessons Learned in Project Management

It is vital to consider the best practices for your unique team. Some universal best practices when it comes to lessons learned in project management are as follows:

  • Gather Information Often: Survey your team and hold informal meetings. The more data, the better.
  • Document Your Findings: Make sure your reports are well documented and searchable in storage so that you can easily find relevant lessons learned from past enterprises. 
  • Review Past Lessons: Establish a process for reviewing lessons learned at each stage of a project, and update this process as you go. 
  • Involve the Whole Team: Everyone involved in a venture, from intern to management, should have the opportunity to give input.
  • Do Not Place Blame: The team succeeds and makes mistakes as a whole. Foster camaraderie and collaboration, not animosity. 
  • Close the Loop: Hold a project retrospective  to wrap up operations. For more information about project retrospectives, check out our guide to project closing .

Considerations for Gathering Lessons Learned in a Work-from-Home Environment

In a perfect world, you will have the opportunity to conduct lessons learned meetings and surveys in person. But when all or part of a team works from home, you might have additional considerations. 

“It’s easy to get complacent when not working in a structured office environment. Not just the clothes, but also losing interest during meetings because it’s online and not in-person. But since I work in a production environment in an essential industry, we were not completely shut down for long. I’ve been back in the office full time since mid-January. Engineers, purchasing, and the like still mostly work from home,” says Armanini. 

“We turned meeting rooms into large break rooms with few tables for better spacing, and rotated break times to keep fewer team members on break at the same time.” She suggests staying flexible for meeting schedules and survey deadlines when possible to accommodate both groups.

Read our “ Experts Hacks and Tips for Working at Home ” to learn more about flourishing in an at-home work environment.

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Seven lessons on how technology transformations can deliver value

In the past year, the COVID-19 crisis has made clear the business imperative of making technology-driven changes , which are more ubiquitous now than ever. Indeed, our latest McKinsey Global Survey on technology and the business suggests that even in the crisis’s earlier days, 1 The online survey was in the field from April 14 to April 30, 2020, and garnered responses from 487 participants. Of these, 275 have a technology focus, and the remaining 212 are C-level executives representing other functions. The participants represent the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, and tenures. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP. respondents were reporting progress on their integration of technology and business—and that these efforts were creating tangible business value across four measures, including new revenue streams and lower costs. The results also suggest that, on average, some transformation activities result in more impact than others (namely, those related to talent and capabilities). And according to the data, the companies with top-performing IT organizations 2 We define “top-performing IT organizations” as those that, according to respondents, had an average effectiveness score in the top 25 percent of the survey sample, based on ratings of 15 key IT activities that were tested in the survey. have differentiated themselves from others in their efforts to create value, adopt new technologies, and bring technology and business closer together.

More specifically, the results point to seven key lessons about technology transformations. 3 We define “technology transformations” as large-scale change efforts—which are more comprehensive than short-term improvement programs—to modernize the technology function.

Lesson #1: Technology investments are creating significant business value

A tech-forward transformation.

Through detailed conversations with nearly 700 chief information officers at some of the world’s largest companies, as well as through our own experience helping businesses execute complex technology transformations, we’ve synthesized our findings into a “tech forward” model of guidelines and best practices. This model includes the following ten “plays,” or domains of activity:

  • Tech-forward business strategy (new tech-enabled business models or customer-facing products)
  • Integrated business and technology management (no silos, and a product/platform orientation with strategic spend allocation)
  • Steward of digital user experience (design thinking, user centricity, and seamless integration with analog technologies)
  • Agile@scale software delivery
  • Next-generation infrastructure services (cloud; end-to-end automation/no operations, or NoOps; platform as a service)
  • Engineering excellence with top talent, both internal and external (do more with less)
  • Flexible technology partnerships (capability focused, outcome based)
  • Flexible, business-backed architecture rehaul delivered iteratively (open architecture, microservices, application programming interfaces)
  • Data ubiquity and advanced-analytics enablement
  • Defenses that preempt evolving threats (cyber, data privacy)

In the latest survey, companies’ tech-transformation activities appear to be paying off. The survey asked about ten different types of transformation initiatives (for more information on the ten plays in our “ tech forward ” approach, see sidebar, “A tech-forward transformation”). 4 The ten initiatives the survey asked about were changing IT’s delivery model (for example, lean IT, agile at scale); digitizing of end-user experience (that is, digitization of end-to-end business processes or end-user/customer journeys across the organization); enhancing IT architecture (for example, using a flexible, services-based architecture, modernizing legacy applications); modernizing infrastructure (for example, cloud migration, infrastructure automation); redesigning the IT operating model (for example, establishing a stronger partnership between the business and IT functions, changing processes such as budgeting and IT demand management, organizing around product-focused teams); redesigning the technology organization to support new digital products or services; scaling data and analytics (for example, deploying artificial-intelligence models, building next-generation data platforms); transforming cybersecurity practices (for example, strengthening defenses against cyberthreats and data-privacy threats, proactively running cyberthreat drills); transforming talent strategy (for example, changing practices to attract, retain, or upskill talent with digital and engineering skills); and transforming vendor management (for example, revamping sourcing strategy, consolidating suppliers, entering new types of strategic partnerships). According to respondents, more than three-quarters of the initiatives their companies pursued have yielded some or significant cost reductions and improvements to employee experience. What’s more, more than two-thirds of respondents say these change efforts increased revenue from existing streams, and more than half cite the creation of new revenue streams : for example, a new product line or new business (Exhibit 1).

The results also suggest that these investments aren’t one-off attempts to catch up, with nearly all respondents reporting plans to pursue at least one transformation play in the next one to two years.

Lesson #2: People-focused plays result in the most value

With regard to impact, the results suggest that not all types of transformations are created equal. Across the ten transformation initiatives, respondents say that changes to their companies’ people and talent strategies are among the highest-value moves to make (Exhibit 2). At companies that have transformed their approaches to technology talent—that is, changing practices to attract, retain, and upskill talent with digital and engineering skills—respondents report the greatest impact on all four measures of business impact.

Meanwhile, those that pursued changes to their sourcing strategies report a significant impact on three of the four measures: realizing new revenue streams, reducing costs, and improving employee experience. And according to the results, scaling up data analytics is a critical enabler of new revenue and increases to existing revenue streams. By the same token, respondents whose companies saw no or negative value across these measures say they were least likely to pursue talent transformations or the scaling of their data and analytics capabilities.

Yet even though the people-focused initiatives link most closely with value creation, they are the least likely ones that companies plan to pursue in the future (Exhibit 3). Instead, the largest shares of respondents predict their companies will pursue digitization of the end-user experience, scaling of data and analytics, and enhancements of IT architecture. That is a notable shift from our past three annual surveys, when infrastructure transformations were the most-cited play that companies pursued. Now, respondents are half as likely to say their companies will modernize infrastructure in the next one to two years.

Lesson #3: Talent remains the holy grail of technology transformations—valuable to pursue but difficult to execute

Not only do the transformations focused on talent strategy stand out in their value potential, but they are also much more commonplace at top-performing companies. Top-quartile respondents are more than three times likelier than their bottom-quartile peers (41 percent, compared with 12 percent) to say they’ve pursued a transformation of their talent strategy in recent years.

Yet the need to address talent is universal and urgent. Respondents believe that more than 40 percent of their workforce will need to be either replaced or fundamentally retrained to make up for their organizations’ skills gaps. But only 15 percent of respondents say their companies plan to pursue a talent-strategy transformation in the next two years, even though the talent challenge remains considerable (Exhibit 4). At companies that have pursued recent transformations, the top challenges to doing so continue to revolve around talent as well as culture: namely, skill gaps and cultural differences, the difficulty of changing cultures and ways of working, and difficulty finding talent to fill new roles—which is as challenging for top performers as it is for everyone else. Talent also appears to impede progress at the companies that haven’t pursued technology transformations; 42 percent of respondents say they have stuck with the status quo because it’s difficult to source the talent they need.

McKinsey Global Surveys

McKinsey Global Surveys

Lesson #4: the talent challenge has clear implications for sourcing.

Perhaps because companies have found talent-related changes so difficult to pursue, responses suggest that they have been using new or different approaches to sourcing to fill some of the gaps. We asked technology executives and respondents about recent changes to their technology-sourcing strategies, and they tend to say that reliance on external providers to support both core IT activities and digital activities has increased. Among respondents reporting changes to their sourcing strategies, 47 percent say they are relying more on sourcing partners to supplement internal capabilities. Overall, most respondents say their companies have engaged partners in a range of sourcing models, from traditional time-and-materials to managed services and joint ventures. 5 Other changes to sourcing strategy that the survey asked about: moving work on digital or front-end applications from global providers to niche sourcing partners; changing commercial models (that is, from time-and-materials or contingent workers to managed service providers); and pursuing larger sourcing models (for example, joint ventures or build-operate-transfer models where partners develop assets that they hand over to an organization to operate).

Lesson #5: No silver bullets—the top performers execute more transformation plays than others

We looked more closely at the results from a subset of respondents whose companies are in the top quartile of performance on core technology activities, or our “top performers.” These companies not only have seen more value as a result of their technology transformations but also have focused on multiple initiatives—and more so than their peers. On average, they have run five out of ten transformation initiatives in recent years, versus three initiatives at the bottom-quartile companies.

This result is consistent with our experience that building capabilities in one area often requires the development of others at the same time because these capabilities reinforce one another. For example, companies that work on scaling their agile-development capabilities often invest in hiring new talent—and accelerating their cloud or automation strategies to enable continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) and DevOps—in parallel.

Lesson #6: The broader use of advanced technologies supports greater value creation

The results suggest that overall, advanced technologies can generate outsize value in tech transformations. Forty-four percent of respondents reporting the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) or edge-computing technologies in recent transformations say they saw significant cost reductions—compared with an average of only 31 percent who saw significantly reduced costs overall. Yet these technologies are relatively uncommon. Only one-quarter of respondents say their companies use IoT in the first place. At the same time, 45 percent of respondents at companies using the cloud to process data at scale report a significant improvement in employee experience from their transformations, versus an average of 34 percent of all respondents.

What’s more, the top-performing respondents report using a slightly larger suite of technologies. Out of the six we asked about, 6 The survey asked respondents about the following technologies, and which their organizations had deployed at scale in their technology transformations: automation; advanced analytics (that is, artificial-intelligence and machine-learning-based solutions); large-scale data processing through the cloud; design thinking (that is, user-centered product development); the Internet of Things or edge computing; and advanced mobility (for example, use of 5G mobile networks). nearly one-quarter of top performers say their companies used four to six advanced technologies, compared with 10 percent of all other respondents. Inversely, the top performers are half as likely as others to report using only one advanced technology.

At top-quartile organizations, 57 percent of respondents say their senior tech leaders are very involved in strategic planning—versus 17 percent in the bottom quartile.

Lesson #7: Bridging the business-technology chasm is critical to outperformance

Beyond their focus on talent, deployment of new technologies, and a broad transformation agenda, the top performers also follow several practices that foster a stronger partnership between technology and the business (Exhibit 5). At top-performing IT organizations, 57 percent of respondents say their senior leaders are very involved in strategic planning, versus 17 percent in the bottom quartile.

At these organizations, IT and business teams also are much more likely to work together to both develop strategy and deliver technology. Top-quartile respondents are nearly three times as likely as their bottom-quartile peers to say that business and IT cocreate corporate and technology strategies. And they are more than four times likelier than their bottom-quartile peers to have a digitally integrated or fully digital operating model, in which digital and business-oriented teams—or cross-functional teams—all deliver technology across the organization  (Exhibit 6).

Finally, the top performers are much more focused than others on measurement, even for metrics that aren’t technology-specific. According to respondents, top-quartile companies are more likely to track their technology organizations’ performance as well as team performance across the company, using more business-oriented metrics such as user satisfaction, time to market, and financial impact.

The contributors to the development and analysis of this survey include the following members from McKinsey’s Chicago office: Anusha Dhasarathy , a partner; Ross Frazier, an associate partner; Naufal Khan, a senior partner; and Kristen Steagall, a consultant.

This article was edited by Daniella Seiler, a senior editor in the New York office.

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Innovating in Uncertain Times: Lessons from 2022

  • Chris Howard

technology lessons learned

Plus strategies for driving transformative growth in 2023.

Too many leaders succumb to fear of missing out (FOMO) when new tech trends emerge and demand that something — anything — using the new tech be implemented immediately. This leads to wasted investment, missed opportunity and disillusionment about the new landscape. Emerging technologies are critical and demand attention and investment, but managers must exercise patience and avoid falling victim to the hype. Responsible exploration is key.

Here are five lessons that the tech world has learned this year about disruption, innovation and constant change, and the takeaways for managers to drive growth through transformation in the year ahead.

Economic uncertainty , social and political unrest, environmental catastrophe, and global health crises continue to impact people and businesses worldwide. Yet, amidst each of these disruptions, managers must maintain forward momentum to ensure their teams achieve success.

  • CH Chris Howard is chief of research at Gartner, Inc. He ensures that Gartner research meets the general and industry-specific needs of senior executives, with emphasis on both technical and business leadership. He has been involved in multiple areas of technology as a consultant, teacher, developer, architect and analyst.

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Tactical Project Manager

Lessons Learned in Projects: Everything You Need to Know

  • by Adrian Neumeyer

Lessons learned workshops aren’t fun because you always make mistakes in projects. And during a review you often think “ We could have done this better” .

But taking a critical review of your project is actually a good thing. Because if you take the feedback to heart you become a better project leader.

(Talking about mistakes: I recently created a checklist for setting up new projects . It helps you avoid making the same mistake in your next project. Go check it out)

In this article you’ll find everything you need to know about lessons learned. What they are good for and how to conduct an actual workshop.

Table of contents

  • What are lessons learned?
  • Why do a lessons learned workshop
  • How to conduct a lessons learned workshop
  • Workshop rules
  • Why you should continuously ask for feedback

Lessons Learned in Projects Featured Image

What are Lessons Learned in Project Management

Lessons learned are an informal conversation where you look at a project in retrospect. It is done after project completion, usually conducted as a meeting involving the project manager and key representatives from customer and contractor side.

I have also done lessons learned with the entire project team. This is even more insightful but it requires more organization ( How organized are you? ).

During the lessons learned meeting everyone shares their perspective on what they thought about the project, what they would have changed, what they learned and what could have been done better. That leads us to the next question:

Why you should have lessons learned workshops

Lessons learned workshops are performed for three reasons: The first is to learn from mistakes and to avoid these mistakes in future projects. The second is to gather best practices — that is smart ways of doing something — and to pass on this knowledge to other project leaders.

The third reason is for trust building with your stakeholders and team members. Involving people in the process and giving them the opportunity to share their perspective will make them more supportive towards project management as well as future projects.

That being said, it should be clear that lessons learned workshops are not (just) a forum for people to vent their anger.

Sometimes you might get this impression when people are being very negative. But a project review should always be about  sharing helpful and constructive feedback and ideas to become better.

How to conduct a lessons learned meeting

Let’s look at the typical process for a lessons learned workshop. The process differs depending on the number of attendees:

  • When you run the workshop with your entire team, you have team members gather ideas in small groups and then present the findings at the end of the workshop.
  • In a lessons learned with only a few attendants though, you will just discuss everybody’s conclusions without any presentation.

The challenge in such workshops is that people will be relatively reserved to give candid feedback. They are afraid of coming across too harsh or to hurt anybody’s feelings, or even to be disadvantaged in the future. What usually breaks the ice is when one person steps up. Then others will follow and share their criticism openly. That’s the kind of atmosphere you should encourage (even if it’s painful).

If you believe it will be hard to get the attendees to open up, consider planning some discussion points in advance. Like, putting in a few self jabs to show humility and humor. And to show others that being self-critical of both themselves and their team is accepted. Also, if you have the relationships in place to do it, consider having a few “plants” in the audience who will chime in with pre-rehearsed lessons learned or comments. This will help to get the ball rolling for the shy people.

STEP 1: WELCOME THE TEAM

Start off by welcoming the team. Then move on to explaining the purpose of a lessons learned workshop. You should have gotten enough ideas from this article.

STEP 2: EXPLAIN THE RULES

Next, explain the meeting rules. You’ll find them further below. Attendees should understand they are supposed to be  constructive , whether they liked the project or not. Everybody is asked to give their feedback on the following questions:

Lessons learned key questions:

  • What was done well?
  • What didn’t go that well?
  • What did you learn?

You have to decide how to record the results. In a small group you would just enter the feedback in an Excel sheet. With a larger audience, you would normally use flip charts or white boards where team members record their thoughts. Irrespective of the tool you always use a 3 column structure: column 1 = what went well, column 2 = what didn’t go well and column 3 = learnings .

Something like this:

Step 3: Gather feedback

Now that everybody knows the process, they can get to work and write down whatever is on their mind. Of course, you as the project manager are not excluded from the process. You should also take the opportunity to reflect on what went well and what didn’t and document your thoughts.

Team members participating in a lessons learned workshop

STEP 4: PRESENT FINDINGS (LARGE GROUPS ONLY)

If you are doing the lessons learned with the entire project team, have one or two team representatives present the results in a summarized form.  They will briefly go through all notes and talk about the most frequently mentioned points: Many team members said they were unhappy with the way the product training was done. The 1-day training apparently was not enough, so people mentioned they didn’t feel well prepared for the project. OK, hopefully you will also get positive feedback.

STEP 5: CLOSE the MEETING

After everyone was able to share their feedback and you’re done recording it in an Excel sheet, it’s time to close the meeting. Say a few kind words and thank the attendees for their participation. You should also point at how the feedback is going to be used: ‘We will take your feedback into consideration for improving our future projects, especially when it comes to ‘.

Rules for a lessons learned meeting

  • Don’t constrain people on the questions. Let them tell you what they want to tell you.
  • Everybody can share their views openly. No judgement.
  • There is no good or bad feedback. Any feedback is appreciated.
  • Avoid personal attacks or naming names. If somebody wants to complain about a specific individual, they can use the title instead, e.g. saying ‘the head of logistics’ instead of Brian Johnson.

Going into the meeting with the right attitude

I want to help you with your mindset for a project review. Suppose you are the project leader and you are going to have your first lessons learned workshop. Then there are a couple of things you should keep in mind.

Don’t dwell on past mistakes: You may be thinking a lot about problems that have happened in your project. A conflict with a stakeholder or a critical step you forgot to take care of. Although this is understandable, it is also not very helpful. I suggest you accept whatever bad things have happened and focus instead on things you have learned (and the things that went well).

There will always be people criticizing: Even the best and most respected project managers face criticism. That’s because projects always trigger controversy and resistance from people in the organization. Therefore, it is natural for people to tell you what you should have done differently. Dogs will always be barking 🙂

Be open to learn: Accept you may not now the best approach for everything. There may be better ways to plan or to conduct certain project tasks. If you’re will to learn, you will become better. And that’s the key. Lack of willingness to introspect is a clear signal project failure is ahead. Read about Seven signs why your project might fail because of you .

Lessons Learned Examples (and what to do with the results)

The whole point of a lessons learned workshop is to learn . To become better. As a project manager and as a team but also as an organization. This learning effect only materializes when action is taken in response to the lessons learned. The type of action depends on whether it concerns only you, your team or the entire company.

Lessons learned for you (project manager):

  • lack of PM support during client negotiations: If your team feels you could be more supportive in situations involving the client, you need to be more available and take over leadership in such situations.
  • team praises your motivational skills: great job, keep going. Nothing to change here.
  • functional expert complains about having been informed too late: True, you could have reached out to the guy 1-2 days earlier. But you were so busy with another issue so you totally forgot about that guys task.

Lessons learned on team level:

  • lack of team spirit: This is a criticism that’s often raised in newly formed teams. One way to approach this problem is by organizing a team event where team members get to know each other.
  • knowledge sharing: A problem when junior team members don’t get enough support from senior experts. The issue can be overcome by defining senior experts as mentors of the junior workers.
  • lack of a specific expertise: Assume you are going into an IT project in the oil and gas industry, but you don’t have anybody on your team with oil and gas industry knowledge. That’s bad, and it will lead to all sorts of awkward situations which in the end the team will complain about.

Lessons learned on company level:

Some of the lessons learned may even require action on company level:

  • no organizational alignment: Each department has its own set of objectives and priorities, but the leadership of the different departments often don’t seem to be aligned with one another and/or the upper leadership – leaving a messy situation at the project team level due to the conflicting priorities. This lack of alignment is something to be taken up on management or even CEO level.
  • poor company culture: Project issues caused by a poor company culture, e.g. one that relies on blaming and imposing fear on employees always have to be solved at the root. Corporate management or the owner of the company have to initiate a cultural change that creates the kind of environment where people are willing to take over responsibility without fear.
  • corporate travel policy: A company’s travel policy could be too restrictive, for example requiring employees to stay within a $70 per night limit for accommodation. Such restrictions can make a business trip even more challenging and unpleasant as it already is. Maybe the company should revise its travel policy?

My advice to you: Always ask for feedback

One important piece of advice I want to give you is to solicit feedback throughout the project, and not just to wait til the end. In project management, you have to respond quickly to issues, and you always want to improve your process so you get optimum results.

The way I collect feedback is to continuously talk to my team: How is this thing going? Are there any issues? Anything we should be doing differently next time? This way I instantly know what areas we have to improve upon and I can take immediate action and course-correct.

Adrian Neumeyer

Hi! I'm Adrian, former Senior IT Project Manager and founder of Tactical Project Manager. I created the site to help you become an excellent project leader and manage intense projects with success!

View all posts

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8 key IT lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis

IT's heroic response to the pandemic has highlighted the technologies, strategies and culture necessary to drive success going forward.

A hand holds a face mask, surrounded by virus morphology.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a jarring impact on virtually every facet of life and business — including IT. As lockdowns end and many businesses begin to reopen, at least on a limited basis, technology executives are looking for a return to some semblance of normalcy.

For sure, the worldwide health crisis has dramatically changed the way IT departments provide services to their organizations. That includes supporting the massive shift to a work-from-home model that few could have fathomed a few months ago.

As with any other event on this scale, there are lessons to be learned. Here are some of those, shared by IT leaders and other experts.

Organizational agility begins with culture

The past few months have reminded IT leaders that change is inevitable, and that culture plays a big role in adapting to change.

Over the past three years, MVP Health Care, a provider of regional health insurance, had been working to reinvent the culture of its IT operations to focus on agility, says Michael Della Villa, CIO and head of shared services.

“We have transformed our thinking as an organization from being resistant to change to embracing it, particularly as it relates to IT,” Della Villa says. “By challenging our IT team to think and act like a business, we’ve significantly upleveled the value we’re delivering to members.”

This mentality includes focusing on the value IT is providing for each customer, embracing change, asking “why” questions, and thinking and acting like a small company, among other things.

“Without the transition to this mentality, we wouldn’t have been able to as nimbly transition from working on premises to nearly the entire company working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Della Villa says. This feat was especially important for a company with more than 1,700 employees spread across New York and Vermont, he says.

Remote work is now a fact of life — and supporting it requires structure

Prior to the pandemic, many enterprises were experiencing a rise in the remote workforce, thanks in large part to increased use of mobile technology and the cloud. The health crisis made working from home the norm, and for many companies the shift might be long term if not permanent.

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from the pandemic is about the need for leaders to establish a structure for working remote, including encouraging team members to set and indicate working hours in their calendaring systems, and then re-setting project timelines and help desk coverage times to accommodate this new availability matrix,” says Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO at software company Nutanix.

“Without this structure, employees tend to continue to operate in ‘emergency’ mode, feeling the need to be available 24×7,” Pfeiffer says. “Just as staying online 24×7 isn’t good for our teenaged video gamers, it’s also not healthy for us.”

The mission of the CIO has now been expanded to enable employees to be productive in their home environment. “When we first went remote, we saw an initial decrease in productivity due to everyone getting adjusted,” Pfeiffer says. “But now that our employees are set up for success at home, we’ve actually seen an increase in productivity by 8 percent. We’ve learned that our employees will work hard no matter where they are, as long as we’re providing the tools and resources for them to thrive.”

The cloud and virtualization have become even more critical

Clearly cloud services have been taking on an increasingly important role at organizations over the past few years. But the pandemic raised the level of urgency to a new level, as companies scrambled to support legions of home workers, roll out and maintain collaboration tools, and more easily deliver applications, capacity, and storage to a far-flung workforce.

“Being a cloud-first company leapfrogged our business continuity capability and allowed us to quickly enable over 90 percent of our employees to work from home during the first week of pandemic,” Della Villa says.

After migrating to Microsoft Office 365 two years ago MVP Health Care also implemented the Microsoft Teams collaboration tool. “Had we stayed with an on-premise solution, we wouldn’t have benefited from Microsoft’s continuous upgrades and enhancements,” Della Villa says.

More important, the company wouldn’t have been able to swiftly send its workforce home without missing a beat in productivity. The cloud has helped accelerate the adoption of advanced technology across the organization, Della Villa says.

“We now regularly are working in ways that previously weren’t the standard, like collaborating over Teams on video in place of the now antiquated phone call,” Della Villa says. “We’re receiving extremely positive feedback across the company on this transition, much due in part to Microsoft’s technology and our move to cloud.”

At Pittsburgh Technical College (PTC), virtualization technology such as VMware’s virtual desktop tools helped the institution seamlessly shift to remote learning, and it provides internet hotspots to students and staff who don’t have access to high-speed access.

“Our IT team was able to transition professors, students, and staff quickly and smoothly to a remote work and learning environment,” says CIO William Showers. “A big part of our success was thanks to previous investments and efforts made to virtualize our underlying IT infrastructure.”

The campus infrastructure is about 95 percent virtualized, including servers and workstations. “When we had to make the switch to working remote, the only difference to the worker was that they were not working at their desk anymore,” Showers says. “They still had the same software and same standardized desktop image.”

That’s not to say the transition wasn’t without challenges. “A number of our students live in rural areas without access to high-speed internet,” Showers says. “In order to accommodate these connection challenges, our team shipped hotspots to these individuals so they can access their virtual learning environment and stay productive until campus is reopened.”

Organizations need flexible software platforms and strategies

IT teams didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the monumental changes caused by the pandemic, so having a set of software platforms in place that could be quickly implemented and scaled to support operations was vital.

This is critical for two reasons, says Scott Mastellon, commissioner of the IT department at Suffolk County, N.Y., an area that was hit hard by coronavirus cases. First, it’s important to be able to quickly implement functionality. Second and more important, “it allows me to distribute the overall workload among my application staff so that one group is not totally overwhelmed,” he says.

This enabled certain staff members to remain “fresh” during the difficult times and continue to be highly productive, Mastellon says. “And to put things in perspective, when I say the difficult times, from March 9 through April 24, a total of 47 days, I worked every day and went into the office for 46 of those days — working an average of 13.5 hours per day,” he says. “Keeping resources fresh to handle demand was key.”

Without having platforms in place from vendors such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, Accela, and Infor, all application work for the county would have depended on its internal custom development staff.

“With our current application environment, we were able to distribute a lot of application demand across our commercial products, while leaving the more specialized application requirements to our custom development group,” Mastellon says. “In my experiences, many government agencies like to customize all applications as to avoid licensing and maintenance costs. While that may work for a smaller governments, it just doesn’t work for a county our size with 10,000 employees and 1.5 million residents.”

The demand for technology during the pandemic “was significant, and I have never experienced this high level in my 25-year career,” Mastellon says. “Having a balanced set of applications and skilled resources to support those applications and develop custom solutions as needed truly allowed us to meet the demand.”

Simplification and standardization are vital

Oftentimes the less complexity there is with IT, the better. That can certainly be the case in an emergency situation like the pandemic.

Prior to its standardization on Microsoft products, MVP Health Care had purchased and implemented hundreds of point products from a variety of vendors to support all kinds of business processes.

“Since then, we’ve spent a lot of energy and mindpower on the simplification and standardization of our technologies,” Della Villa says. “We’ve also evolved our relationship with Microsoft from a customer/vendor relationship to a true valued and trusted partner relationship.”

The company invested in Dynamics 365 for its customer relationship management (CRM) platform. “These investments in simplifying and standardizing have been essential to our ability to successfully and quickly transition employees to working from home,” Della Villa says.

A people-centric approach to IT security is necessary

Remote workers tend to abandon security procedures that interfere with their workflow and productivity, and as a result are often willing to bypass data protection checks if they can, says Vishal Salvi, CISO at Infosys, a digital services and consulting company.

“Enterprises have traditionally focused on creating security for systems,” Salvi says. “It’s time to pivot to focus on developing security for people.” Hackers are increasingly targeting remote workers, and it’s vital that these employees be able to work productively without being hindered by security processes, he says.

“When an incident occurs, the default reaction tends to be to blame the employee, even penalize the worker for not following the procedures,” Salvi says. “It’s valuable, however, to look at why that incident happened. What gaps existed in the defenses that exposed the employee to threat actors? What was it about the security solutions and processes that caused the employee to sidestep them and create additional risks?”

To prevent remote workers from taking security shortcuts, IT teams need to balance security with user experience and productivity, Salvi says. IT teams must provide a streamlined and hassle-free work experience while building transparent cyber security controls.

AI and machine learning can be game-changers

Even before the pandemic, many enterprises were grasping the potential of AI and machine learning (ML) tools as a way to draw unprecedented value from data and improve processes. For companies in industries such as healthcare, the technologies quickly opened new opportunities to advance data management.

“During the first few weeks of COVID-19, we witnessed five to six years [worth] of technology transformation across the industry,” Della Villa says. “Through AI and ML, we’re able to better understand where members are in their health journey, and add tremendous value with predictive analytics.”

Now, patients avoiding the hospital after suffering a stroke or not leaving their homes to pick up vital insulin prescriptions can be better served through AI and ML, Della Villa says. Powerful analytics tools can proactively predict and address health care needs.

“Additionally, as a result of the accelerated adoption of technology tools like telemedicine during the pandemic, we can expect our members and the general public to be more open to adopting other technologies into their healthcare in the future,” Della Villa says.

Technology innovation can be contagious

While it might be difficult to get employees who have a limited understanding of technology to embrace it, once they actually see the benefits they want more, Mastellon says.

Suffolk County in March 2020 deployed a robotic process automation (RPA) platform from UIPath to automate the processing of COVID-related lab results, saving a huge amount of time while improving this vital function for county residents.

Following the success of the RPA implementation, people who had worked for the county’s health department began to think about how they could apply the technology to other areas of their work, Mastellon says. “These are employees that would tend to be an obstacle in getting technology implemented in the past,” he says.

“One positive that we can take away [from the pandemic] is that it has opened up the eyes of many on what technology can do and how it can help improve our ability to complete our work,” Mastellon says. “Going forward, we now have people who understand the benefits of technology and will start to demand innovations.”

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7 Key Steps in Lessons Learned in Project Management

7 Key Steps in Lessons Learned in Project Management

In the fast-paced and ever-evolving business world, project management has emerged as a vital discipline, bridging the gap between ideas and execution. It is a realm where plans are forged, teams are led, and challenges are conquered. Every project brings a unique set of lessons to be learned, shaping how we approach future challenges.

Whether you're an experienced project manager or just starting, embracing these lessons can be transformative, enabling you to navigate the complexities of project management with confidence and finesse. Join us as we share priceless lessons learned in project management.

What Are the Lessons Learned in Project Management?

Lessons learned in project management are invaluable insights and experiences gained throughout the project lifecycle. They provide guidance and wisdom for future endeavors, helping project managers navigate challenges and achieve success. These lessons include planning, communication, risk management, team collaboration, and stakeholder engagement.

Why Are Lessons Learned Important in Project Management?

Lessons learned are vital in project management because they help project managers navigate challenges, enhance their skills, and drive positive organizational change.

By analyzing what went well and what didn't, project managers can identify areas for improvement, avoid repeating mistakes, and make informed decisions for future projects. Project learning also fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement, ensuring that knowledge is shared and applied to future attempts. In short, project learning is a vital tool for project success and professional growth.

Lessons Learned Process

The lessons learned process in project management involves systematically identifying, documenting, analyzing, validating, sharing, applying insights, and reviewing experiences gained during a project. Here are the key steps involved in the lessons-learned process:

  • Identification: Project managers and team members identify lessons learned throughout the project lifecycle. This can be done through regular reflection, team discussions, surveys, and interviews.
  • Documentation: Lessons learned are documented in a structured manner, including details about the project, the specific situation or issue, the lessons learned, and any recommendations or actions to be taken.
  • Analysis: Project learnings are analyzed to understand their impact on the project. This involves identifying patterns, root causes, and potential opportunities for improvement. It also helps in assessing the effectiveness of project management processes and practices.
  • Validation: The documented lessons learned are validated by relevant stakeholders to ensure accuracy and completeness. This step may involve seeking feedback and input from team members, project sponsors, customers, and other stakeholders.
  • Sharing: The lessons learned are shared with the project team, other project managers, and stakeholders. This can be done through formal reports, presentations, knowledge repositories, or informal discussions. Sharing lessons learned promotes knowledge sharing and prevents the repetition of mistakes.
  • Application: The insights gained from the lessons learned are applied to future projects or the current project if it is ongoing. This involves incorporating the lessons into project plans, processes, and best practices. Applying lessons learned helps avoid mistakes, optimize project performance, and ensure continuous improvement.
  • Review: The lessons learned process is reviewed periodically to assess its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. This helps in refining the process and making it more efficient and impactful.

Purpose of Lessons Learned

The purpose of key learnings from a project is to capture and document valuable insights, experiences, and best practices gained throughout the project lifecycle . These lessons serve several purposes:

  • Enhancing Skills: Lessons learned allow project managers to reflect on their experiences, identify areas for improvement, and improve their skills and knowledge. By analyzing successes and failures, project managers can learn valuable lessons that help them become more effective.
  • Avoiding Mistakes: Lessons learned enable project managers to identify and understand mistakes made during previous projects. By documenting these mistakes, they can develop strategies to avoid repeating them in future projects. This helps reduce risks, improve project outcomes, and ensure continuous improvement.
  • Optimizing Project Execution: By analyzing project learnings, project managers can identify areas of improvement in project execution . They can identify processes, tools, or techniques that worked well and those that didn't and adjust accordingly. This helps streamline project workflows, increasing efficiency and delivering better results.
  • Sharing Knowledge: By documenting and sharing lessons, project managers enable others to benefit from their experiences, avoiding potential pitfalls and leveraging best practices. This promotes collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement across projects.
  • Ensuring Project Success: By applying lessons learned, project managers are better equipped to handle challenges and avoid risks. Key learnings from a project help project managers develop more effective strategies, make informed decisions, and adapt project plans as needed. This ultimately increases the chances of project success and client satisfaction.
  • Driving Professional Growth: Project learning is valuable for the current project and the professional growth of project managers. By reflecting on their experiences, project managers can identify areas for personal development, acquire new skills, and enhance their project management capabilities. This contributes to their professional growth and helps them become more effective leaders in future projects.

How To Capture Lessons Learned?

Capturing lessons learned is an essential step in the project management process. Here's how you can do it using ActiveCollab:

  • Set up a Lessons Learned section: Create a dedicated section in ActiveCollab where you can capture and organize all lessons learned. This can be a separate project or a specific category within your project.
  • Identify the lessons: Encourage team members to reflect on their experiences and identify lessons learned. You can do this through surveys, interviews, team meetings, or individual reflections.
  • Document the lessons: Use AtiveCollab's task or document management feature to record the identified lessons learned. Include details such as the project phase, the problem or issue encountered, the solution implemented, and the outcome.
  • Analyze and validate: Review the captured lessons learned and validate their relevance and accuracy. Try discussing them with the project team or subject matter experts.
  • Share and communicate: Share the lessons learned with the project team, stakeholders, and other relevant parties. AtiveCollab allows you to share documents or tasks with specific individuals or groups easily.
  • Apply the lessons: Integrate the lessons learned into your project management practices. Update your project plans, processes, and procedures to incorporate the new knowledge and avoid repeating past mistakes.
  • Review and improve: Regularly review the lessons learned repository to ensure it remains current. Continuously improve your project management practices based on the insights gained from past experiences.

How To Write Lessons Learned Report in Project Management?

Here are easy step-by-step instructions to help you write an effective lesson-learned report:

  • Identify the purpose: Determine why you are creating the report. Is it to improve future projects, share knowledge with stakeholders, or comply with organizational requirements?
  • Gather information: Collect data and information from various sources, such as project documentation, team members, stakeholders, and project meetings. Ensure that you have a comprehensive understanding of the project's successes, challenges, and outcomes.
  • Define the structure: Organize the report into sections such as project overview, objectives, key deliverables, challenges faced, successes achieved, and recommendations for future projects. This structure will help readers navigate the report easily.
  • Document lessons learned: Summarize the lessons learned from the project. Include positive and negative experiences, highlighting what worked well and what could have been improved. Use specific examples and anecdotes to illustrate each lesson.
  • Analyze lessons learned: Reflect on the project learnings and analyze their impact on the project's overall success. Identify patterns or recurring issues that may need attention in future projects.
  • Provide recommendations: Based on the key learnings from a project, offer practical recommendations and solutions for addressing similar challenges in future projects. These recommendations should be actionable and specific.
  • Document best practices: Identify best practices that contributed to the project's success and document them in the report. This will help ensure that these practices are repeated in future projects.
  • Create a lesson-learned document: Compile the report into a formal lesson-learned document. Make sure it is well-structured, easy to read, and includes relevant graphics or visual aids.
  • Share the report: Distribute the lessons learned copy to relevant stakeholders, project team members, and other interested parties. Consider using a lesson-learned repository or knowledge management system to store and easily access lessons learned from multiple projects.
  • Review and update: Periodically review and update the lessons learned document as new projects are completed. This will ensure that the report remains a valuable resource for future projects.

Types of Lessons Learned

Lessons learned in project management can be categorized into various types based on the nature of the insights gained. Here are some common types of lessons learned:

  • Technical Lessons: These lessons focus on the technical aspects of the project, such as technology implementation, design considerations, or development methodologies. They highlight what worked well and what could be improved regarding tools, processes, or techniques.
  • Process Lessons: Process project learning related to the management and execution of the project. They include insights into project planning, scheduling, risk management, communication, stakeholder engagement, and quality control. These lessons help identify best practices and areas for improvement in project management processes.
  • Team and Interpersonal Lessons: Lessons in this category focus on team dynamics, collaboration, and communication within the project. They can include insights into team structure, leadership styles, conflict resolution, or effective communication strategies. These lessons help improve teamwork and foster a positive work environment.
  • Stakeholder Lessons: Stakeholder lessons involve understanding and managing the expectations and needs of project stakeholders. They can include insights into stakeholder engagement, relationship management, or addressing conflicts of interest. These lessons help improve stakeholder satisfaction and ensure successful project outcomes.
  • Risk and Issue Management Lessons: These lessons highlight identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks and issues throughout the project lifecycle. They can include insights into risk assessment techniques, issue resolution approaches, or contingency planning. These lessons help improve risk management strategies and minimize project disruptions.
  • Organizational Lessons: Organizational lessons focus on the broader implications of the project within the organization. They can include insights into organizational culture, governance, resource allocation, or strategic alignment. These lessons help align projects with organizational goals and improve decision-making processes.

Benefits of Lessons Learned

Here are the benefits of lessons learned in project management:

  • Cost-Efficiency: Key learning from a project helps identify cost-saving measures, avoid unnecessary expenses, and optimize resource allocation.
  • Time-Saving: By learning from past mistakes and successes, project teams can streamline processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and reduce project duration.
  • Quality Improvement: Project learning enables teams to identify areas for improvement, implement best practices, and deliver higher quality outcomes.
  • Risk Mitigation: Lessons learned help identify potential risks and develop strategies to mitigate them, reducing the likelihood of project failures or disruptions.
  • Team Morale: By recognizing and celebrating successes, lessons learned boost team morale, motivation, and engagement.
  • Scalability: Project learnings provide insights into scaling project operations, processes, and resources to accommodate growth and changing project requirements.
  • Market Reach: Key learnings from a project help teams understand market dynamics, customer preferences, and industry trends, enabling them to expand their market reach.
  • Innovation: Lessons learned foster a culture of innovation by encouraging experimentation, learning from failures, and promoting creative problem-solving.
  • Customer Satisfaction: By incorporating lessons learned, project teams can better understand customer needs, deliver products or services that meet or exceed expectations, and enhance customer satisfaction.
  • Competitive Advantage: Key learnings give organizations a competitive edge by enabling them to learn from their competitors' mistakes, capitalize on industry trends, and stay ahead of the competition.
  • Streamlined Communication: Lessons learned improve communication practices, ensuring information flows effectively between team members, stakeholders, and project sponsors.
  • Task Automation: Lessons learned help identify opportunities for automating repetitive tasks, reducing manual effort, and improving overall project efficiency.
  • Employee Retention: By implementing lessons learned, organizations can create a supportive work environment, foster employee growth, and improve retention rates.
  • Incremental Improvements: Project learnings facilitate continuous improvement by identifying small-scale changes that can lead to significant overall project enhancements.
  • Quick Decision-making: Lessons learned provide valuable information that enables teams to make informed decisions quickly, reducing project delays and bottlenecks.
  • Lower Operational Costs: Lessons learned help identify cost-saving measures, eliminate wasteful practices, and optimize operational efficiency.
  • Simplified Reporting: Key learnings from a project streamline reporting processes, making it easier to track project progress, identify issues, and communicate project status to stakeholders.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Project learning promotes collaboration among team members, enabling knowledge sharing, cross-functional cooperation, and collective problem-solving .
  • Skill Development: Lessons learned allow individuals to develop new skills, enhance their expertise, and grow professionally within the organization.

Project Management Lessons Learned Example

Project Name: Product Launch for Organic Skincare Line

Team Members: Sarah, Michael, Emily

Project Goals: Successfully launch a new line of organic skincare products, increase brand visibility, and generate sales.

Project Successes:

1. Implemented a comprehensive marketing strategy that included social media campaigns, influencer partnerships, and email marketing.

2. Conducted market research to identify target audience preferences and tailored product offerings accordingly.

3. Developed a user-friendly e-commerce website with secure payment gateways and seamless navigation.

4. Established partnerships with local retailers to expand distribution channels and increase product accessibility.

Lessons Learned:

1. Problem: Limited product availability during the initial launch phase.

Impact: Potential customers could not purchase products, resulting in missed sales opportunities.

Recommendation: Ensure sufficient inventory is available before launching and establish a robust supply chain management system.

2. Problem: Ineffective communication between the marketing and design teams.

Impact: Marketing materials did not accurately represent the brand's values and product benefits.

Recommendation: Implement regular cross-functional meetings to align marketing and design strategies and improve communication channels.

3. Problem: Insufficient customer support resources.

Impact: Customers experienced delays in receiving responses to inquiries and complaints.

Recommendation: Increase customer support staffing and implement a ticketing system for efficient issue resolution.

4. Problem: Inadequate post-launch analysis and evaluation.

Impact: Difficulty identifying areas for improvement and measuring the success of the launch.

Recommendation: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and conduct regular post-launch evaluations to track progress and refine strategies.

What Tools Are Best Used To Share Lessons Learned From Projects?

There are several effective tools for sharing project learning. One popular option is project management software with a knowledge base or a project learnings repository. This allows team members to document and share their insights and experiences. ActiveCollab, for example, offers Notes as Discussions as features that can serve as a place for teammates to share experiences and observations on the project they've worked on.

Another tool is a project retrospective meeting, where team members can openly discuss successes, challenges, and key learnings from a project. Creating a project closure report or a post-project review document can also help consolidate and disseminate valuable lessons to the wider organization or future project teams. Ultimately, the best tool depends on the organization's preferences and the project's specific requirements.

How Should the Lessons Learned From a Project Be Communicated?

Lessons learned from a project should be communicated concisely and effectively. This can be done through various means, such as project reports, presentations, or meetings. The key is highlighting the key positive and negative takeaways and providing actionable recommendations for future projects.

It is important to document the lessons learned in a structured format, ensuring they are easily accessible to the relevant stakeholders. Additionally, sharing these lessons learned with the broader organization can help foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

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What is a lessons learned template? Guide with examples

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Every project hits a few (or many) bumps along the way, but they are opportunities to learn and improve the next go around. Many teams use a “lessons learned” template.

This article spells out the benefits of using a lessons learned template, provides some example templates to get started, and shares monday.com’s interactive lessons learned template built for all kinds of professionals.

Get the template

What is a lessons learned template?

During post-project review meetings, teams usually discuss the various lessons they learned throughout the project. A lessons learned document or template is often the document that captures all of this feedback.

A lessons learned template is a document or presentation that helps team members review positive and negative experiences of a completed project and identify any key learnings.

This opens up opportunities for improvement on future projects. The high-level buckets include:

  • Everyday management
  • Communication
  • Technical elements of the project
  • Overall project management

This type of organization means a comprehensive summary of how people worked together, reacted to setbacks, and executed tasks.

When should you use a lessons learned template?

Naturally, use of a lessons learned template is during the fourth stage of the project life cycle, project closeout. Project closeout is the time period in which the team reviews the deliverables, as well as compares and tests their quality to the intended project outcome.

They also deliver the project and documents to the client or stakeholder. At this point you have both the time and data needed to be able to reflect and parse out important reflections and learnings.

To learn more about this phase of the project life cycle, read our blog on project closure.

3 reasons to use a lessons learned template

While we could probably list 100+ reasons, the top 3 are:

1. Avoid repeating mistakes

There’s nothing more frustrating than making the same mistakes over and over again. Unless a project manager makes a conscious effort, your team may lose out on ‌valuable insight by not learning from their experiences.

A lessons learned template is an excellent tool to get the knowledge gained down on paper (virtual paper works too). Make good use of what you’ve learned and avoid the same mistakes. It also encourages knowledge sharing within your team so everyone can learn from each other.

2. Identify strengths and weaknesses

If there are aspects of your projects that always seem to take more effort than others, a lessons learned template can help. These templates often contain a section for challenges the project team experienced during the project.

It’s hard to to address a problem if you are not aware of what the challenge is! Collecting feedback from the team makes it easier to dentify common threads and pinpoint … which links in the chain are causing the setbacks.

Similarly, if there are team members or departments that always do a stellar job or get things done ahead of schedule, learn why.

A lessons learned template can identify what they are doing that the rest of the team is not. It then becomes easier to spread productive habits around the entire team.

3. Make team members feel heard

74% of employees report that they’re more effective at their job when they feel heard.

Collaborating on a lessons learned document is an excellent opportunity for your team to vocalize what they struggle with and what makes life easier. Giving your team the space to voice their opinions will make them feel heard and appreciated. This kind of company culture is more likely to boost employee morale and productivity.

Get template

What’s an example of how to use a lessons learned template? 

Here is a real-life, practical example of when you could use a project lessons learned template.

You are supplying a large corporation with office furniture, including installation. You’ve planned out every detail, including stock, logistics, labor, timelines, etc.

During installation, some things go poorly — the office chairs you ordered from the supplier came in the wrong size, a delay. Once installation begins, your team works at a slower pace than anticipated.

Everything else goes according to plan, and despite the hiccups, you complete the installation a couple of weeks behind schedule. So, how do you put a lessons learned template help into action? Let’s break it down into four steps.

Step 1. Share it with the right people

First, assemble representatives from all involved parties — the labor team, management team, and stakeholders. Then, provide a copy of the following lessons learned template and ask them to fill it in honestly .

an example of a lessons learned template

( Image Source )

Step 2. Solicit feedback

From the labor team: You glean nobody was there to inspect the delivery of office chairs when they arrived. There was only a security guard on duty who signed off. You also learned the onsite manager arrived at least half an hour late daily.

From the drivers: You learn the vehicles were in good shape and had plenty of space to transport your goods and equipment.

From the managers: You learned the communication chain between your headquarters and the installation site was flawed.

This feedback gives you several key insights.

Step 3. Turn feedback into insights

First, your onsite manager was negligent in their time management and communication. Second, there is no qualified staff to oversee and inspect deliveries.

Third, the logistics company provides good quality vehicles (you can trust them for future projects).

monday.com makes it easy to request, record, and analyze feedback and turn this feedback into actionable improvements for future projects. So next time you’re faced with a similar project, you can access this feedback from anywhere and use it to guide your actions.

Example feedback dashboard in monday.com

Step 4: Analyzing the lessons

Going back to the example: when considering how to do things better the next time, it’s essential to check in with the onsite manager to ensure they arrive on schedule and relay communications accurately.

So you appoint a staff member to oversee deliveries and keep the details of the logistics company for future use. You have eliminated weak links and fortified strong ones by analyzing the lessons learned.

monday.com’s lessons learned template

monday.com Work OS is a no-code/low-code platform that allows businesses of all sizes to work without limits using a variety of pre-built templates, automations, real-time insights, and other features.

We’ve created a comprehensive, highly-customizable, and interactive lessons learned template to make managing the lessons learned process quick and intuitive.

Some of the critical ways monday.com can help:

Accessible from anywhere

When asking yourself, “What could have been done better?” simply access your monday.com project lessons learned template from anywhere. Then, watch in real-time as all insights are consolidated and available for analysis and presentation.

Our template provides space for reflection, documentation, consolidation, and storage of ideas that you can retrieve later. With the wisdom of past projects readily accessible, your business is in a better position to learn and grow.

Easily collect feedback with forms

With monday.com, we don’t just give you a template ( though we have many of those available ). Using our Work OS, you can create a custom-made, shareable form to quickly solicit feedback from your team. Simply send the link to your form, and voila! Each response will populate directly onto the respective board for you to analyze.

monday.com board to keep track of employee feedback

Harness the power of automation

monday.com’s lessons learned template saves time and resources by automating processes that used to waste valuable hours — no more sifting through endless stacks of forms and trying to piece them together yourself.

You can sit back and watch as it categorizes, assigns, or organizes information in a presentable format from the word go. Beyond those we’ve already mentioned, there are many (many) templates to help manage workflow and complete successful projects.

Related monday.com templates

Project schedule template.

The Project Schedule Template maps out the project timeline by phase. It has space to include all the necessary details like schedule, budget, resources, risks, and task status.

Example of project schedule template on monday.com

Action plan template

The Action Plan Template breaks down a project into actions and their subsequent details. For each step, you can assign a person responsible, a priority level, a start and end date, and any other relevant notes.

Employee review template

The Employee Review Template makes it easy when you need a standardized way to assess employee performance. It includes sections for characteristics such as initiative, group work, client relations, technical skills, attendance, and consistency.

Self-assessment template

Similar to the employee review template, the Self-Assessment Template asks employees to indicate how they view their performance. Based on this reflection, they can identify areas to improve.

Frequently asked questions

How do you create a lessons learned document.

To create a thorough lessons learned document, you need a lessons learned template. monday.com draws on years of collective workplace solutions experience to create a powerful lessons learned template. We make it simple to assess task success by guiding you through the pros, cons, and suggestions for every aspect of a completed project.

What do you write in lessons learned?

All lessons learned documents should cover the following:

  • What went wrong during the project?
  • What went well?
  • What could have been done better?
  • What valuable lessons can be taken away?

How do you introduce lessons learned?

Any insight gleaned from a lessons learned template should be documented and stored. We recommend appointing a project manager to present the lessons learned during the planning phase of your next project.

How do you share lessons learned?

Any lessons learned should be communicated with the whole company in a respectful and team-oriented way. Remember, our lessons learned template is designed to advance the interests of everyone in the business, from admin staff and technicians to senior management. Plus, it’s easy to grant and control access so you can view the lessons learned and add commentary in real-time.

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Lessons Learned From Implementing Digital Health Tools to Address COVID-19 in LMICs

Associated data.

Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found here: https://www.exemplars.health/emerging-topics/epidemic-preparedness-and-response/digital-health-tools .

As COVID-19 strained health systems around the world, many countries developed or adapted digital health tools to detect and respond to the novel coronavirus. We identified transferable lessons from an assessment of implementation factors that led to the rapid launch and scale-up of eight digital tools in low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. These lessons should inform the development of digital health tools to support public health objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Using the mHealth Assessment and Planning for Scale Toolkit, we assessed the implementation of eight digital tools through desk research and stakeholder interviews. Three core lessons emerged from our findings: (1) user-centered design is key to the widespread adoption of digital tools; (2) strong, country-led partnerships are essential for scaling up and sustaining digital tools; and (3) using adaptable digital tools enables implementers to focus on the content of the solution rather than the technology. Lessons learned from implementing and adapting digital tools quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic can inform the use of digital tools for additional health applications, such as bolstering primary health care, reaching vulnerable and marginalized populations, and empowering health workers with the real-time information necessary to optimize their work and improve the health of their target populations. Future efforts should focus on robust monitoring and evaluation of digital tools and sustainable financing models.

Introduction

Many digital health programs were in place before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, including those designed to respond to disease outbreaks. As COVID-19 challenges health systems around the world, innovators have developed and adapted digital tools for case management, contact tracing, evidence-based surveillance, training, risk communication, and vaccine delivery ( 1 ).

Digital health tools facilitate efficiencies and enable rapid scale-up, near-instantaneous data sharing, and quick data aggregation and analysis. If we can sustain and replicate lessons learned from implementing digital tools during the pandemic, we can leverage their potential to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.

We reviewed digital health solutions in lower- and lower-middle-income countries across three user groups—health care providers, health system managers, and health system clients ( 2 )—before selecting eight examples for assessment (see Supplementary Table 1 ).

The selection of eight case studies was driven by scale, impact, and sustainability, as well as availability of information ( Figure 1 ). The case studies draw on desk research and stakeholder interviews with developers, implementers and government representatives, and local experts. The tools we assessed do not necessarily meet all metrics of success, nor do they capture the extent of work done worldwide to implement digital tools as part of the COVID-19 response.

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Methodology used to select the digital tools for this assessment.

With the right context and committed users, digital tools have the potential to improve health systems, ensure healthy lives, and promote wellbeing; however, most impact-related research has been conducted on smaller projects or specific digital health applications ( 3 ). Researchers have found that while some interventions achieve their desired outcomes, many have not been measured. Measuring the impact of digital tools on the pandemic response has been particularly challenging. The need to respond rapidly in a crisis setting limits the ability to evaluate tools' usage. In the absence of true impact measurements, we used alternative metrics as near-term output proxy indicators, including time to deployment, number of laboratories integrated into a system, and number of people reached.

Framework for Assessment

Multiple frameworks and guides have been developed to support implementation of digital health tools from organizations like the World Health Organization, PATH (Digital Square), and UNICEF ( 4 – 6 ). Of the existing frameworks, we selected the mHealth Assessment and Planning for Scale (MAPS) Toolkit to anchor our analyses because it provided a comprehensive assessment and an actionable guide to scale innovations and maximize their impact. The framework identifies six axes for assessing the implementation and scalability of a given program which we used to assess the performance of digital tools in the sections that follow: groundwork, partnerships, financial health, technology and architecture, operations, and monitoring and evaluation (see Figure 2 ; Supplementary Table 2 ) ( 5 ).

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Summary of strengths and challenges across the eight digital tools assessed (detailed descriptions available in Supplementary Table 2 ).

Our research focused on assessing the implementation of the tools rather than the technology itself. We aimed to supplement the growing knowledge base surrounding best practices in digital health to sustain and strengthen health systems toward Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages ( 7 ).

Define the Use Case and Value of the Tool

What is the problem this tool will solve, and for whom? Clear answers to these questions are critical to obtaining buy-in from partners, donors and end-users. All digital tools assessed had a clearly articulated vision.

  • In Uttar Pradesh, India, officials worked closely with the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit team to conceptualize and develop the Unified COVID-19 Data Platform—a comprehensive, integrated digital tool for all stakeholders to track and manage the state's COVID-19 response. Within 2 months, the platform evolved into a modular, end-to-end solution for case reporting and management, contact tracing, workflow integration, data aggregation, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning ( 8 ).
  • In Uganda, e-learning modules were developed on separate platforms to maintain usability and refresh the knowledge of users ( 9 ).

“Using a people-centered design approach, Medic spent several weeks at the community level to understand workflows, how CHWs [community health workers] perform their jobs, potential pain points, communication channels, and infrastructure that would be required to support a digital platform.” (Medic Implementing Partner)

Design Human-Centered Solutions Aligned With User Priorities

Successful digital tools effectively address user needs in their design. Pilot testing has ensured that these tools work from a technical perspective and are user-friendly for target audiences.

  • Partners in Nigeria worked together to develop the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS). As part of this effort, they addressed challenges related to the country's Ebola response by interviewing stakeholders across all levels of the health system and running multiple pilots throughout the tool's development ( 10 ).
  • The Vietnamese government worked closely with developers to implement several tools that addressed user feedback. Some of the first location-tracking tools raised concerns about data privacy and mass surveillance, so they developed Bluezone, which supports contact tracing using Bluetooth ( 11 ).

Understand the Technology's Enabling Environment

Planning for a program's future involves understanding the local context and proactively identifying roadblocks that might hamper progress.

  • The Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka launched a master's degree program in health informatics over a decade ago to build a foundation of expertise in using the national health data systems ( 12 ). This investment enabled rapid action early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • After working in South Africa through the MomConnect program for nearly 7 years, the non-profit Praekelt easily navigated local challenges and collaborated with longtime government partners to address challenges through its HealthConnect app ( 13 ). The app is available via WhatsApp and USSD (a type of text message) for those without data plans, and partnerships with telecommunication providers ensure free access to the messages.

Partnerships

Establish relationships and credibility through partners, especially government.

All eight tools we assessed relied on strong government commitment to expand their reach. By working with organizations that already have a presence in-country, developers can draw on their expertise and connections.

  • In Burkina Faso's launch of CommCare, the implementing team (led by Terre des hommes) worked closely with the Ministry of Health for more than a decade to create the tool ( 14 ). As a result, it has been fully integrated with the country's health infrastructure and transmits data for key indicators automatically to the government's health information system. The tool is considered a national priority in the country's digital health strategy.

“Early on, key people within the MOH believed in the transformative potential of digital health for PHC, and they played a pivotal role in the design, influencing decision makers, and drumming up demand. A chief medical officer involved with the first pilot in Tougan District later transitioned to the central level of the MOH and continues to be an important advisor and ambassador for scaling up the project.” (Implementing partner at Terre des hommes)

  • Collaboration between public and private stakeholders drove quick statewide development and adoption of the Unified COVID-19 Data Platform in Uttar Pradesh, India ( 10 ). The Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Directorate of Medical Education and Training coordinated the state's COVID-19 response together, and the medium- to long-term thinking and support from technical support partners enabled quick development, implementation, adaptation, and rollout of the digital platform.

Financial Health

Develop business models beyond donor investment by demonstrating value.

Digital tools that charge for services can establish a funding stream from users—either clients or their insurance providers—rather than relying on donors. This applies primarily outside of a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic when facilitating quick access is the priority. Of the eight digital tools we assessed, financial health and sustainability was a challenge shared by most.

Digitize and Standardize Processes to Establish a Predictable Value

Implementers can demonstrate financial value by lowering costs and better calculating and standardizing the value their products provide to the health system.

  • Living Goods and Medic have automated and standardized task and decision support checklists for community health workers in Uganda with the HealthConnect app ( 9 ). As part of this effort, they are shifting the workflow from reactive to proactive outreach—in part by using predictive modeling—to improve the impact of the community health worker program. Rather than relying on calls from clients, they can identify people and communities who are more likely to require care, thereby improving the efficiency and cost benefits of the program.
  • In Burkina Faso, CommCare is used to simplify complex clinical protocols for health workers. Terre des hommes has worked with partners to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to make data processing more efficient, improve measurements, and provide health workers with real-time recommendations based on their performance history, as well as generate smart dashboards and predictive models for epidemiological surveillance. This saves valuable time and enables workers and supervisors to increase their reach.

Technology and Architecture

Develop a reliable and adaptable product.

Digital health tools must have the capacity to adapt to shifting priorities. All the tools we assessed had to adapt their technology, with some facing more challenges than others.

  • SORMAS in Nigeria was designed specifically to be modular and adjust as new pathogens emerge ( 11 ). As a result, a module specific to COVID-19 was ready by January 2020 and integrated seamlessly with the existing technology.
  • In India, the phased launch of CoWIN was useful in identifying the technical limitations of the platform and the programmatic limitations of the vaccination drive leading up to the official launch in January 2021 ( 15 ). CoWIN's adaptable design enabled the technology team to respond to technical challenges by quickly building key features that allowed users to search pin codes and choose their vaccination centers. By July 2021, officials announced that India would offer the CoWIN platform to the world as an open-source “digital public good.”

Ensure Interoperability

For digital tools to integrate with the health ecosystem, they need to work with other data systems and technologies.

  • Sri Lanka used DHIS2, an open-source health information system, to manage multiple aspects of the country's COVID-19 response, including port-of-entry tracking and contact tracing ( 13 ). Because the underlying DHIS2 platform had existing data infrastructure with known flexibility, it could integrate with other systems like those used by immigration officials. DHIS2's interoperability is one reason for its use in more than 70 lower- and middle-income countries.
  • Three design principles—intuitive, modular, and integrated—served as a foundation for the Unified COVID-19 Data Platform in Uttar Pradesh, India ( 10 ). This modular, workflow-based system enabled the platform to grow and adapt to meet emerging needs for multiple stakeholder groups. For instance, health workers can refer patients to facilities, officials can leverage a decision-making dashboard to perform dynamic modeling, and citizens can access their COVID-19 test results.

Invest in Local Expertise

Digital health tools often replace or augment existing workflows. Strengthening local capacity and conducting community outreach helps make this transition to digital tools successful and may increase buy-in for the tools.

  • The HigherHealth team in South Africa invested heavily in outreach to campus leadership and students because they recognized that working toward a digital screening and passport system required strong community support ( 14 ). The team set up a peer network of thousands of students, which resulted in brand recognition and staying power for the HealthCheck app.
  • In Sri Lanka, there was a large focus on local developer expertise. The connection between the Health Information Systems Programme, the DHIS2 core team, and the global community of DHIS2 experts helped local developers get valuable feedback on their work and made it possible for other countries to benefit from their pioneering innovations ( 13 ).

Invest in Capacity to Use the Solution Locally

The sustainability of a tool depends on local capacity and usability in the country context, which requires additional forms of user support such as language accessibility, training, and user guides.

  • The partnership for the development of SORMAS in Nigeria resulted in full government ownership of the tool ( 11 ). The program is run by a task force at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, with the developers and donors providing technical and financial support. The team runs trainings for multiple user types in several languages and is working toward a cascade training approach, in which one group provides training to another group.
  • In Vietnam, the NCOVI and Bluezone apps become more effective as more people download them. Promotional messaging in multiple languages encouraged “challenging the virus with the strength of our community,” and the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Information and Communication encouraged all smartphone users to install Bluezone for themselves and three others: “Protect yourself, protect the community” ( 12 ).

Monitoring and Evaluation

Measure the tool's impact and maintain an adaptable approach to implementation.

  • The Integrated e-Diagnostic Approach in Burkina Faso has undergone multiple independent evaluations that suggest improved health outcomes and quality of care. Estimates show the tool saves between US$830,000 and US$1.7 million per year from reduced training times for community health workers and reduced paper consumption ( 16 ).
  • Living Goods invested in a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of its SmartHealth app on maternal and child mortality in Uganda. Results in 2014 showed a 27 percent reduction in under-five mortality after 3 years, at an estimated cost of US$68 per life saved ( 17 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed innovations in digital health, but scaling and sustaining the innovations remains a challenge. Our assessment builds on existing evidence that has stressed the importance of end-user input, stakeholder engagement, adaptability, interoperability, and alignment with the broader health care ecosystem and policy environment ( 18 ). Though the path to scale looked different in every context, three core lessons emerged from our findings:

  • User-centered design is key to the widespread adoption of digital tools . Each development and implementation team identified an ongoing practical problem and established a clear, user-friendly solution—whether those users were health workers or members of the public.
  • Strong, country-led partnerships are essential for scaling up digital tools successfully . The solutions that scaled up most successfully during the COVID-19 pandemic benefited from close, long-established partnerships with committed governments to establish and promote the tools.
  • Using adaptable digital tools enables implementers to focus on the content rather than the technology . Within the global digital health community, there has been a push toward the use and development of global goods ( 19 ) or tools that are adaptable and designed to be used in many contexts. This flexibility enables implementers to focus on user-centered design and scale. Many of the digital tools studied were in use for many years before the pandemic, which meant that users already had the required equipment and knowledge to begin leveraging solutions for COVID-19 immediately.

Many of the challenges revealed in our assessment of digital tool implementations are also common to many public health programs globally. Few of the tools assessed have established sustainable financing, business models, or methods to evaluate their impact rigorously. Monitoring and evaluation are not typically prioritized during health emergencies, but the long-term sustainability of these tools remains at risk when funding is not guaranteed and when evidence of improved health outcomes is limited or undocumented. Finally, digital health is not a panacea. If a country faces substantial challenges within its health care system, such as a lack of providers or facilities, digital health tools cannot fully close the gap in quality of or access to care.

These eight case studies complement recent efforts to coordinate implementers around guiding principles, such the WHO's Global Strategy on Digital Health, by offering detailed examples of how core lessons have been applied to address common challenges.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted and reversed progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals ( 20 ), it has also proved to be an important time to demonstrate the value and possibility of digital health tools. These findings are relevant for policy makers, donors, and non-governmental leaders seeking to understand best practices for the implementation of digital tools.

Future efforts in digital health should emphasize rigorous monitoring and evaluation of tool implementation and sustainable financing models. If the lessons from implementing digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic can be sustained and built upon, digital health tools can realize their potential to increase access to health care, increase the quality of care delivered, complement primary health care systems, and strengthen data for public health decision making ( 21 ).

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

CM, SL, and RS conducted desk research and stakeholder interviews. CM, SL, and RB wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to conception and design of the study, revised, read, and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

CM, SL, RS, MK, and RB were employed by Gates Ventures LLC.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the collaboration and analytical contributions of McKinsey & Company including from Matt Wilson, Marilyn Kimeu, Molly Bode, Peter Okebukola, and Tristan Goodrich. The authors would also like to thank all who contributed to this body of work and they are acknowledged individually within the published case studies. Note that any conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.859941/full#supplementary-material

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Technology lessons from the pandemic — and beyond

The ninth annual accounting technology roundtable explores what the covid-19 quarantines taught us about the ability of accountants to adopt and adapt..

Technology lessons from the pandemic — and beyond

  • Emerging Technologies
  • Firm Practice Management

For years, some accounting firms and finance departments resisted shifting any, much less all, of their critical data and IT systems to the cloud. And very few firms and finance departments supported all of their employees working remotely at the same time.

That all changed with COVID - 19 . The pandemic and its associated quarantines forced many firms and finance teams to figure out how to function when no one could go to the office. And, in many cases, the changes had to be made overnight.

What did the coronavirus crisis show about the accounting profession's ability to adapt? What technologies played the biggest roles in the shift to a work - from - home world? And what tech trends can accountants expect to see in the longer term?

Those topics were among the key issues addressed in not one, but two accounting technology roundtables held this year — one in early March and a follow - up discussion in early May to assess the COVID - 19 fallout. We are presenting the roundtables in two parts. This article includes a discussion of robotic process automation along with topics related to COVID - 19 .

The full COVID - 19 roundtable podcast can be found here . Please note that the transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

Short profiles of the panelists — Donny Shimamoto, CPA/CITP, CGMA; Amanda Wilkie; and Nikki Winston, CPA — are available at the bottom of the page.

How did the COVID - 19 crisis affect the way you and your firm use technology?

Wilkie:   A lot of firms already had remote work policies, but there were some questions: "Can they really be that productive? Can we really support everyone working from home?" Guess what? You can if you really have to, and right now you really have to.

There are firms that implemented Microsoft Teams a year, 18 months, two years ago, but they didn't really get the adoption they wanted. We talked to firms that said they were going to implement Microsoft Teams in the summer [or] in the fall, but they went ahead and did it due to the pandemic. And the adoption is just through the roof.

Winston: I have to say, especially with Microsoft Teams, I'm learning about a lot of those little - known functions. I used it a lot to communicate with my team via instant messaging, but now it's, "Oh, there's a whiteboard. Oh, we can share files here. Oh, you don't even have to open Outlook; you can just open Teams, and it'll drop you right into the meeting." In addition to trying to discover new technology solutions, it has forced us to dig deeper into the ones we already have, especially with a lot of companies trying to manage their cash flow.

Which whiteboard application are you using for remote meetings?

Wilkie:  Miro (formerly RealtimeBoard).

Shimamoto:  The tool built into Microsoft Teams.

We heard a lot of concerns about security related to working from home. What would you say are the two or three biggest things accountants can do to keep home IT as secure as possible?

Shimamoto:   Make sure that any personal devices are up to date on patches and have anti - virus protection. Those are probably the biggest ones there.

Winston: Especially from a business continuity standpoint, we're seeing a lot of clients who realize that they should've taken time and put a disaster recovery plan in place or should have identified their critical business processes.

Wilkie: I love that you use business continuity because we often think about disaster recovery, and losing an office or losing power to a natural disaster is a lot different than everyone having to stay at home.

For example, you've got multiple people trying to work in the house. Do you have enough space? Are you comfortable? Can you be productive? Is everything ergonomic? Are you risking your health and your well - being in the long run for the company? And I'm definitely getting into some of the nontech stuff, but what is the firm's responsibility in that situation versus the individual's? And I think the hard truth is we're never going back 100% to the way that we were, so firms are going to have to look at the long term. We're still going to be working remotely, and now the profession has proven that we can be productive, and the mindset is changing.

I also think it's interesting that one of the things that has changed is six months ago it was absolutely taboo for a kid or pet to be seen on a Zoom meeting. And now it's like, "Hey, come on in here, Billy. Meet the team." And I think one of the positive things coming out of this is that we can now be so much more human and the technology is still keeping us connected as such.

Winston: Yeah, I'm so glad we got to this topic because there is no Amanda at the office and Amanda at home. It's one person now. You can't separate those into two different people now. And so I've seen cats. I've seen dogs. My kids have jumped into a couple of Zoom meetings. It's definitely a lot less judgmental type of situation.

Wilkie: I think we're going see this as a catalyst for changing the way that we look at productivity. Does it have to be 8 to 5? Or is it about what you can get done in the time that you have?

And bringing it back to kind of the technology piece, what technology do you need to be that productive and to illustrate and improve that productivity so that we understand the value that you're bringing to the firm and the value that you're bringing to the clients? I think there's a huge catalyst for a shift in the mindset but also a shift in the technology that supports that new mindset.

Shimamoto: We've seen a big uptick in firms, actually not just firms but business and industry as well, asking about workflow management and project management and task management software, which does allow you to then track what your teams are doing remotely and where they are in progress on things. One of our teams just started using Planner in Office 365. We also have Microsoft To Do with our Office 365.

Wilkie:   To your other, earlier point, Donny, you're using the tools that you have. You found a pain point, and you found a tool that you already had to solve that pain point. I'm sure you're going to go back in the long run and ask yourself, "Is this really the tool that's right for us? Do we need to invest in something that's more robust?"

Nikki, how have you used robotic process automation (RPA) to make your firm more efficient?

Winston: As a busy mom and entrepreneur, I'm always looking for ways to automate things in my business, especially those repeatable processes. I'll use CPA Exam coaching as an example. When candidates sign up for coaching services, they all go through a similar process. They select a package, sign the agreement, and pay the invoice. The completion of those tasks triggers an automated workflow that I've created to send the onboarding emails and give the CPA candidates access to study guides and practice questions without having to wait for me to push a button.

Automation creates the consistency that ensures you don't miss any steps, which is great for firms that are just starting out and still trying to figure out how things should operate. It's also helpful for firms needing to get new staff up to speed. That workflow is almost like the blueprint to show employees how things should be done.

Have you tied together multiple applications in this automation?

Winston: Yeah, I've created a technology stack integrating things like Slack and Gmail and calendars and just figuring out through trial and error what works best.

Are you using something like Zapier?

Winston: Yes. I also use Zapier to post articles on different social media. If I post an article on LinkedIn about the CPA Exam, I don't want to have to manually post it on Instagram and post it on Twitter. So I set up a Zap that automatically feeds articles I post on LinkedIn into my Twitter feed and my Instagram feed.

That's a good segue into the next question. Donny, can you talk about the difference between RPA and automation powered by artificial intelligence?

Shimamoto: Sure, and actually we should go back because you mentioned that what Nikki was doing is robotic process automation, or RPA, and it's actually not. What Nikki was doing was just traditional automation, where we've got different events and triggers, and the software through different APIs [application programming interfaces] is actually moving data or responding to events that occur among different applications.

RPA really is trying to address the situation where there isn't an API or there isn't integration available. Think of it as this robot that's kind of sitting at the computer, and when something happens in one system or if it has a list to work off of, the robot is actually moving things or triggering things to occur in a different system. But it's really actually replacing the human that would normally have to do that.

If Zaps are not RPA, then using Zapier is different than using something like Automation Anywhere, correct?

Shimamoto: Right, because with your Automation Anywhere, UiPath, Nintex, it's like they are the robot sitting at the workstation. That sounds high tech, but you don't have to be an IT person anymore to build a robot and deploy it. There are tools today that make it very easy for a non - IT person to "train" a robot. What you actually do is walk the robot through what you want it to do, and it sort of records the steps: Double - click on this icon when the window opens up. Open up this menu and do this thing. Go back and look at the Excel spreadsheet and enter this information.

Nikki, what you did was very impressive because you got your baseline automation going with Zapier. Now when Zapier can't do something because the API or an integration isn't available, that's the time to start thinking about having an RPA robot do that because the process you are trying to automate is still very consistent. It's still very standardized.

Consider this example. When a firm gets an 8879 [IRS Form 8879, IRS e-file Signature Authorization ] from a client, the next step is to go ahead and e - file the return. Now the form may arrive via your portal or via email. You can train a robot to recognize that an 8879 has arrived in one system and then trigger the e - filing . Before RPA, an admin would have to do it.

Similarly, the next step after e - filing is to check it every day to see whether it has been accepted or rejected. It's a perfect job for a robot because you are essentially telling the robot: "Here's the list of things that have been e - filed . Go into the software and check to see whether it has been accepted or rejected." You can't check the accept/reject decision with a Zap because there is no API between the IRS system and your systems.

Wilkie: I know a firm that has done just that, and when their little robot sees that the return has been accepted, it automatically updates their workflow process, which then, of course, starts triggering other things, such as billing for that client.

Winston: I love that. I'm going to add that to my workflow.

We mentioned Automation Anywhere and UiPath, but are there any other RPA product names accountants should know?

Winston: I think before any of that, the key is to really understand your business from the inside out. How things work, how a task goes from point A to point B. Understanding what inputs and actions are needed to see an engagement through to completion. The technology is great, but the limitation is that the technology is doing what we tell it to do. It's only going to be as effective as the steps that are written behind it.

Wilkie: As for the list of RPA technologies, I would add that Microsoft has Power Automate, which is part of Office 365. Most folks who have an Office 365 subscription already have access to it.

Shimamoto: I'll add two other ones. Blue Prism is also an RPA platform, but that one and Automation Anywhere are higher - end and more expensive. Another one that's more non - IT friendly is HelpSystems Automate.

I agree with Amanda that Microsoft Power Automate is interesting. A lot of people don't realize they have it if they have the Office 365 enterprise plans.

Automation technologies mentioned

(Listed alphabetically)

Robotic process automation: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, HelpSystems Automate, Microsoft Power Automate, Nintex, and UiPath.

Traditional (API required): Zapier.

The panelists

Donny Shimamoto , CPA/CITP, CGMA, is founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC, a specialized CPA firm that helps small and midsize businesses manage their technology, risk, and growth.

Amanda Wilkie is a consultant with Boomer Consulting and former chief information officer with top 30 accounting firm WithumSmith+Brown.

Nikki Winston , CPA, helps candidates prepare for the CPA Exam and provides small business accounting, controllership, and advisory services through her firm, The Winston CPA Group.

About the author

Jeff Drew is a JofA senior editor. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact him at  [email protected] or 919-402-4056.

AICPA resources

  • " Professional Liability Spotlight: Data Security Tips to Help Weather a Pandemic ," JofA , May 15, 2020
  • " Technology Q&A: 5 tips for effective remote meetings ," JofA , Jan. 2020
  • " The Technology — and Human — Lessons of COVID-19 ," May 22, 2020

CPE self-study

  • Cybersecurity Fundamentals for Finance and Accounting Professionals Certificate (#162221, online access)

Conferences

  • ENGAGE2020 Digital, July 20—24, aicpaengage.com (online only)
  • AICPA/CPA.com Digital CPA conference, Dec. 6—9, Orlando, Fla.

For more information or to make a purchase or register, go to aicpastore.com or call the Institute at 888-777-7077.

  • Tax Technology Resource Center

IMTA Section and CITP credential

The Information Management and Technology Assurance (IMTA) Section supports AICPA members who provide services in the areas of information security and cyber risk, privacy and IT risk management, business intelligence, and emerging technologies. CPAs may also pursue the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) credential, which demonstrates an individual has the expertise to advise organizations on how to maximize information technology to manage their business. Access to the IMTA's tools and resources is included with AICPA membership. To learn more, visit aicpa.org/IMTA and aicpa.org/CITP .

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These are the healthcare lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

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COVID-19 caused a public health rethink Image:  Unsplash/Maxime

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  • The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of global and national health systems.
  • These COVID-19 practices could be adopted to create more resilient health systems in developing countries.
  • Trailblazers identified cost-effective and globally applicable noncommunicable disease intervention and treatment pathways from which every country should benefit.

As the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be in transition, now is the optimal moment to reflect on lessons learned. More importantly, now is the time to consider what practices can be adopted from the pandemic response to create more resilient health systems in developing countries. COVID-19 offers a chance to reset health system priorities. It provides a leapfrogging moment for health systems transformation through innovation.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of global and national health systems. Already struggling healthcare systems shifted their resources to the pandemic response. This exacerbated the burden on people with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by delaying and disrupting their diagnosis, treatment and care.

NCDs, also known as chronic diseases, include cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. They remain the number one killer globally, causing nearly three-quarters of deaths worldwide. Every year, 17 million people under the age of 70 die from NCDs, 86% of these live in low-and middle-income countries.

NCDs 2030: Accelerating Change through Innovation

On the occasion of the G20 Bali leadership summit, where the strengthening of global health architecture and health systems are priority issues, the World Economic Forum releases NCDs 2030: Accelerating Change through Innovation . Through in-depth consultations with policymakers, industry leaders and leading academics from G20 countries, this white paper uncovers lessons learned from COVID-19 and the effective methodologies and innovation strategies that developed from it. The results inspire optimism.

Rapid pandemic response helped developing countries gain valuable time

In response to the multifaceted knock-on effects of COVID-19, developing countries reacted rapidly to NCDs management challenges by increasing health service provision and strengthening medicine supplies. Countries quickly adopted a system whereby selected hospitals were made designated centres for COVID-19 patients, while others maintained normal operations, treating NCD patients without COVID-19 symptoms. One example is the mobile cabin hospitals approach pioneered and adopted by China, Serbia, India and Indonesia.

By building dedicated COVID-19 facilities, NCD patients without COVID-19 symptoms were ensured medical services. People living with NCDs generally require timely and long-term medications. Extended 'long prescription' policies were rolled out at various local health commissions, while pharmaceutical companies responded with the launch of large NCD medication packaging.

People, prevention and technology

Moving over to integrated health systems will bring long-term benefits to developing countries, but it requires a three-pronged approach focusing on people, prevention and technology. Our studies show that, with thoughtful planning and careful implementation, some of these rapid responses can, and should, be made permanent to improve the equity, accessibility, quality, efficiency and resilience of health systems.

Examples of replicable responses include the many promising examples of people-centred integrated care models across the disease spectrum; innovative attempts to enable and mobilise community-level primary care for early screening and diagnosis; and smart integration with digital and technological advancements to increase health access and improve diagnosis and treatment.

Reshaping the diagnosis and treatment process in a people-centred way

One of the most critical features of integrated health systems is the patient-centred approach. Good examples include China’s Chest Pain Centres (CPC), which have a strong focus on reducing the onset-to-treatment time and raising the treatment efficiency of acute chest pain patients; its Metabolic Disease Management Centres (MMC), which focus on improving follow-ups and management of diabetic patients; and, its Cough and Wheezing Management Centres (CWMC), which focus on improving the quality of life of respiratory disease patients.

The Service flow of chest pain centres in China

Focusing on early detection and diagnosis

The World Health Organization estimates that 30–50% of cancers can be prevented by reducing risk factors and implementing evidence-based prevention strategies. Though developing countries still lag behind on national-level, high-risk cancer screening programmes, we have found promising best practices in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Egypt, with programmes covering at least 70% of the population. This ranges from prostate cancer screening schemes in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, to a breast cancer screening programme in Egypt. These countries have smartly raised public awareness, significantly improved access to screening services and provided end-to-end services post-screenings.

Improving efficiency by developing and applying innovative technology

The demand for telemedicine and AI-assisted decision-making tools existed before the pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated their progress. Whether it is supporting doctors’ clinical decision-making or helping patients access medical services, the role of technology is becoming increasingly prominent. It will inevitably play an even greater role in shaping the future of health systems.

Take the largest mobile health platform in Indonesia, Halodoc, as an example. Indonesia is the most populous country in South-East Asia and its doctor-to-general population ratio is lower than its neighbouring developing countries and significantly lower than that of developed countries. Halodoc’s users are provided with 24/7 access to doctor consultation services through chat, voice or video calls. Patients can have their medications delivered within 45 minutes, thanks to the integration of a ride-hailing service company and an e-commerce platform. Users are also provided with multiple payment methods, including government-funded insurance.

The benefits of AI in addressing doctor shortages and assisting clinical decision-making are clear. Firstly, AI can be used to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes, especially at primary medical institutions. Secondly, AI is operable 24/7, with AI imaging solutions a good example of this. An experienced doctor needs one minute to assess ten CT scan images. AI technology, using image recognition, shortens this assessment time to a few seconds, while improving the accuracy of manual diagnosis by 15–20%. AI technology also standardises diagnosis, as discrepancies can be created by human factors, such as fatigue or inexperience.

There is still room for optimisation, but we already see trailblazers identifying cost-effective and globally applicable NCD intervention and treatment pathways from which every country – no matter its income level – can and should benefit. NCDs present an urgent global health challenge. Governments, private-sector industries and international organizations must work together to strengthen their collaboration, with learning and sharing at the heart of this ethos. There is no better time for the world to unite and align efforts under these principles.

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How technology is reinventing education

Stanford Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and other education scholars weigh in on what's next for some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom.

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Image credit: Claire Scully

New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

Technology & the Pandemic: What’s Next for Schools?

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This online summit will examine the ways in which technology has reshaped K-12 education during COVID-19 and what that means for teaching and learning now, next school year, and beyond.  The pandemic has forced teachers across the country to learn all kinds of new tech skills and integrate them into their instruction, the country has seen an expansion of 1-to-1 computing programs for K-12 students like never before, and valuable lessons were learned about virtual learning and what works and what doesn’t work.   

At the same time, the push to put more technology in the hands of students has exposed huge equity gaps between the tech haves and have nots, regarding access to digital devices and reliable WiFi.  Schools and states have tried to bridge those gaps, but the inequities will persist even once most students and teachers are back in school buildings.  What does that mean for how technology is used in education? 

Education Week has been covering all these developments closely, supplementing our reporting with monthly surveys of educators during the pandemic.  This summit will bring that reporting and survey work together with our featured guests and audience members to tackle issues surrounding this important question: When it comes to the use of technology, what’s next for schools? 

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Integrating Technology Into Collaborative Professional Learning

Incorporating digital collaboration into PD gives teachers a model to replicate when setting up tech activities for students.

Adults working together

Promoting student collaboration in the classroom can increase engagement and students’ use of higher-level thinking skills. But it’s important that teachers help students develop the tools needed to collaborate effectively, and that includes learning how to leverage digital tools for collaboration.

Many teachers find it challenging to do so, though, whether because of a lack of experience using technology for collaborative purposes, or due to an uncertainty about when to use these practices in the classroom.

One way to address this challenge is to model digital collaboration in professional development (PD) sessions. By demonstrating how teachers can integrate digital collaboration into their learning environment, we can help colleagues feel more prepared. 

When I plan PD sessions for teachers, I use the principles of adult learning theory as a guide. These principles help me design learning experiences that are effective for my adult learners, and they also provide me with opportunities to integrate digital collaboration—for example, when teachers share prior knowledge or experiences or new learning, or they work to solve scenario-based problems.

Sharing prior knowledge and experiences 

Teachers bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to PD sessions. Our job as facilitators is to acknowledge and build on that experience. 

I led a PD for teachers about how to use Google Forms for assessment. At the start of the session, I asked teachers to reflect on the current practices they use to assess student learning. I organized teachers into groups of four to five, and I gave each group one slide to share in a Google Slide deck. 

They discussed their current practices and added them to their assigned slide. After a few minutes, I asked each group to take a minute to look at each other’s ideas. They were able to see their work as a whole group, and as a facilitator, I was able to connect their current practices to the new learning that followed.

Sharing new learning 

Teachers appreciate having opportunities to make choices about how and what they learn. Those of us who design PD should provide opportunities for choice in every session. Simultaneously, we need to work in ways for teachers to share their learning with each other. 

When I led a PD on blended learning for a group of teachers, I knew that they were coming in with a variety of experience levels. I designed an activity in which I gave them three different articles from which to choose, depending on their current knowledge. The articles ranged from a very basic introduction to blended learning to a more advanced exploration of teaching strategies.

When participants finished reading their chosen article, they then shared what they had learned on a collaborative Google Jamboard or another digital whiteboard . In this way, they were each able to choose the best path for their learning needs, and they were still able to share and discuss new learning with each other, building upon one another’s ideas with the help of technology.

Solving scenario-based problems

Adult learners are motivated by the opportunity to solve problems. Facilitators can therefore engage teachers by designing activities in which they are challenged to solve problems related to their professional lives. 

For example, I facilitated a PD for teachers about how to increase active learning for students. After we explored some strategies and ideas together, I asked teachers to apply their new learning. I placed them into teams based on their grade level and content area, and I gave each team a classroom scenario. They worked together to identify ways that the lesson could incorporate more active learning. Each team was given a Google Doc template where they could organize their ideas, explanations, and thinking. Since each team member had access to the Google Doc, they were all able to edit and type in it together. 

Each team added the link to their Google Doc on a Padlet board that the whole group could see. Teachers benefited, not just from hearing the thinking of their team members, but also from being able to access the work and ideas of all the other teams. 

Other Ways to Incorporate Tech Into PD

After you complete a collaborative activity, you can also ask teachers to think about and discuss how they could use a similar activity with their students. It’s important to use digital tools that teachers are also allowed to use with learners, to make it as easy as possible for teachers to use the activities in their own classrooms. Be ready to offer suggestions or ideas for teachers who might struggle to see how the activities could translate to their content or grade level.

You can also provide how-to resources for the digital tools you use, such as links to videos or step-by-step directions. Offer to follow up with individual teachers who might need support learning how to use the tools.

Integrating digital collaboration into the classroom can be challenging. By providing teachers with opportunities for digital collaboration in PD, we can help them gain the confidence to implement these strategies in their classrooms, which will lead to enhanced learning opportunities and collaboration for students. 

More From Forbes

Ceo vision 2024: crafting a strategic roadmap for business and technology synergy.

Forbes Technology Council

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Timothy Britt, CEO/Founder, Synoptek , Irvine, CA.

The new year marks the commencement of insightful dialogues surrounding emerging trends, innovative technologies, progressive business strategies and engaging interviews with esteemed industry leaders. To enable sustained growth, every organization will need to define its trajectory for business and technology progression. They will need to make crucial choices on technology adoption, how to ensure a seamless blend between bots and humans, enhance customer interactions and ensure strategic deployment of generative AI.

There is no better way to start a new calendar year than to sit down and pen down thoughts on growth plans and strategies. Here’s what I think the technology industry will be up against in the coming year.

Customer experience will be a key focus area for technology professionals in 2024.

Every situation is different. Every organization is different. One of the most essential things for technology professionals and consultants is to build a great customer experience. Often, technology professionals may be in the back of the corner, distancing themselves from the customer. That is not an ideal scenario.

You really need to understand the customer. Go out and talk to your customers. Get in the trenches with your customer. Understand how they’re interacting with your organization. Also, speak to business stakeholders interacting with your customers to get a better and deeper understanding of precisely what they want.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, successful alignment of technology investments with critical business strategies is the key..

The value of technology and successful technology investments depends on organizations. When we walk into organizations, we witness 40 to 50 different technology projects running simultaneously. When reviewing their extensive list of prioritized projects, it becomes evident that numerous initiatives lack the desired impact, often resulting in inefficiencies and suboptimal outcomes.

When I meet with customers and talk about the technology they're using to realize business results, I witness that there is more focus on ad-hoc implementation than strategic vision. Businesses should focus more on strategies. They should try to realize the business vision and achieve the intended results. Technology is just a tool that helps us do that.

The most crucial thing the technology department in a company—or the CIO or CTO—can do is ensure that all tech initiatives are attached to a key business strategy. Everyone should be aligned on what the most critical business strategies are. Technology initiatives should be aligned explicitly with prioritized business.

At my company, we are putting this into practice so that our customers can focus their resources on the more important things to achieve growth.

Lessons learned from the past year must influence decision-making in the coming year.

Last year, Synoptek replaced many of its systems and upgraded platforms to new ones, affecting everyone in the company. During this process, there are a few things we realized we need to keep in mind as we help our customers going forward.

First, the business and the people who own its processes must be fully engaged while partnering on the technology projects to be successful.

Second, there needs to be a structured methodology. We must paint a true picture of what the future will be in a clear way and, more specifically, why we are doing it.

Third, we often forget how people are affected by changing systems. They are trying to do their jobs effectively. Suddenly, we take all the systems and change how they work, introducing new processes, and things don't work as they initially thought. Setting their expectations, training them sufficiently and helping them through that transition is essential.

To ensure every stakeholder saw and agreed on the plan to make things happen, we found that the most effective way was to have "executive envision" workshops. These workshops helped our people talk openly and honestly about the business challenges and then design appropriate solutions. By spending a little bit of time in two or three sessions, we gathered information from everyone and outlined solutions that solved the big problems.

Organizations must brace for top tech and business challenges.

In today’s volatile world, companies will need to be agile and able to operate in the event of an unexpected outcome or need to build a pivot. They must set up a solid technology foundation in the cloud.

Next, whether companies are growing or pivoting, any change will bring vulnerability, which opens the door to many bad actors. So, they must chart out a risk and compliance framework to protect data and intellectual property and keep systems running.

We should all be grateful for the job we get to do.

For example, due to this role, I can talk to hundreds of our customers every year, and I get to witness first-hand in these interactions how technology is used to do legendary things.

The technology industry is constantly innovating, and seeing how our customers utilize these advancements to accomplish tasks that were once deemed impossible is truly exciting.

It’s also thrilling to be in this age of generative AI, intelligent automation and NLP models and witness their capabilities in fueling innovation and human interaction.

Closing Thoughts

In today’s technology landscape, the possibilities are truly remarkable. To drive strategic success, it's imperative to enhance tech initiatives that can tangibly transform and elevate your business.

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

Timothy Britt

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Amarillo Globe-News

Garden Guy: Fundamental lessons learned from years of gardening

W hen I was a newbie gardener, I wish I had known to focus on a few key items. Learning the plants to use for the part of the country where one lives and the place in the garden that they will be planted is difficult enough. Adding the variables of size, color, and other characteristics, and the proper mix of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals make for challenges to all gardeners, let alone the newbie.

All of this comes over time and, of course, one never learns it all. Gardening is a neverending journey. Despite this, there are fundamentals that are applicable everywhere in most all gardens.

First and foremost is that of building the soil. Just as we will not grow and develop as well as we should without proper nutrition, neither will plants. The vast majority of nutrients used by most plants for their growth and health come from the soil.

In any soil, the only plants that will thrive are those adapted to the conditions of that soil. In our area, we typically are not satisfied to have only these plants in our gardens. (Simply look at the undisturbed countryside around the city.) Thus, we must add amendments appropriate to our conditions and the plants that will thrive here with those modifications.

When amending the soil and adding nutrients, go organic. It is easier, cheaper, and better for your, the plant’s, and the planet’s health. It results in less work and is longer lasting. The main problem is that organic gardening and its products are not as well known as the petrochemicals and other products that have been used for decades. Invest in learning – the benefits of the knowledge will be immeasurable over the years, wherever one gardens.

Don’t fight nature. If we were meant to grow gardenias, azaleas, and dogwoods, we would have acidic soil and more moisture rather than alkaline soil and water and arid conditions. While these can be grown here under special conditions or circumstances, they will not do well in our gardens without extreme and usually costly intervention. Even then, they will not thrive.

Pay attention to the final size of the plant being installed. Give it the room it needs to mature. Because it looks so small, it can be difficult to plant a small shrub, which may grow to 10’ tall and 8’ wide, at least 4’ from a structure. If you don’t, in a few years you will be faced with the dilemma of what to do with a too large plant that is too close to something.

Understand plant requirements. In addition to using plants that will do well locally, learn their soil, water, and light needs. Install plants with like needs together for ease of care, maintenance, and for their best health. If plants of dissimilar needs are grouped together, some will suffer due to the care given to others.

Learning and observing these basics will save much agony over many years.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Garden Guy: Fundamental lessons learned from years of gardening

Hatton

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