Of those organisations that do maintain their lessons learned only a few (mainly government) make their lessons learned systems available to the general public. If you know of any that do share, please help me maintain an active list. Some of you may say that the identified lessons learned are not lessons hmm? …I will save that discussion for another post.
London 2012 ODA http://learninglegacy.london2012.com/index.php
NASA http://llis.nasa.gov/llis/search/home.jsp
NASA http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/library/knowledge-risk.html
US Department of Transportation RITA http://www.itslessons.its.dot.gov/
We also have some Gateway Review – Lessons Learned Reports available:
Australian Government http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/gateway-publications/lessons-learned.html
New Zealand Government http://www.ssc.govt.nz/gateway-lessons-learned-july11
Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS-NASA) http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/search/database.html
The Marine Safety Forum
http://www.marinesafetyforum.org/
Source: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com reports.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=40164
OIG: Review of NASA’s Lessons Learned Information System by Renee Juhans.
NASA Inspector General Paul Martin released a report (6 March, 2012) that examines the extent to which NASA managers use the Agency’s “Lessons Learned Information System” to improve performance in ongoing and future NASA projects and how the system fits within NASA’s overall knowledge management strategy.
NASA policy requires the collection, validation, assessment, and codification of lessons learned submitted by individuals, NASA directorates, programs and projects, and any supporting organizations and personnel. Since 1994, NASA’s principal mechanism for collecting and sharing these lessons learned has been an online, searchable database called the Lessons Learned Information System (LLIS). However, the value of LLIS is contingent on managers and engineers routinely consulting and adding information to the system about their project’s successes and failures.
This Office of Inspector General (OIG) review has found that NASA’s project managers do not routinely use LLIS to search for lessons identified by other projects, nor do they routinely contribute new information to LLIS. Consequently, OIG found that the LLIS has been marginalized in favor of other NASA knowledge sharing system components and is of diminishing and questionable value.
Specifically, other than the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, no NASA Center consistently contributed information to LLIS from 2005 through 2010. The OIG also found NASA’s policies regarding the input of lessons learned into LLIS have weakened over time; policy direction and implementation for the Agency’s overall lessons learned program was inconsistent; Headquarters monitoring of critical Center-based LLIS activities was deficient; and NASA’s overall strategy for knowledge management, lessons learned, and LLIS is not well defined.
The OIG recommended that NASA develop and implement a cohesive strategic plan for knowledge management and sharing, particularly with respect to lessons learned. As part of this plan, we recommended that the Agency determine if or how LLIS fits into this overall plan. In addition, we recommended that NASA revise applicable policies to align with NASA’s strategic vision for institutional knowledge management and improve the collection and dissemination of lessons learned Agency-wide. NASA concurred with the OIG’s recommendations.
The full report can be found on the OIG’s website at http://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY12/IG-12-012.pdf
From Martin Fisher • @Stephen. Thanks for linking to the NASA report. It makes really interesting reading.
e.g. “we found that LLIS is underutilized and has been marginalized in favor of other knowledge management tools such as Ask Magazine and the annual Project Management Challenge seminar. Users told us they found LLIS outdated, not user friendly, and generally unhelpful, and the Chief Engineer acknowledged that the system is not operating as originally designed. Although we believe that capturing and making available lessons learned is an important component of any knowledge management system, we found that, as currently structured, LLIS is not an effective tool for doing so. Consequently, we question whether the three quarters of a million dollars NASA spends annually on LLIS activities constitutes a prudent investment.”
Well worth a look. It would be nice to hear more about what complements their Lessons Learned Information Sysytem – they mention the need for ‘case study workshops, forums, publications and commnities of practice to build a broader learning organization’. Be good to see how they get on….
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=30804&type=member&item=89744744&commentID=69158934&report%2Esuccess=8ULbKyXO6NDvmoK7o030UNOYGZKrvdhBhypZ_w8EpQrrQI-BBjkmxwkEOwBjLE28YyDIxcyEO7_TA_giuRN#commentID_69158934
Philippe Herrou • Good idea to share these sites ! May I propose also this very professional site : http://www.marinesafetyforum.org : they are sharing actively Safety Lessons Leanred coming from the Offshore / Subsea Oil & Gas business.
updates now available at http://www.invictaprojects.com.au/pmlessonslearnedblog/?page_id=383
Pingback: update to ‘What organisations do you know have shared their lessons learned?’ | PM Lessons Learned blog
Thanks Michael Masla • Reports generated by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) often are focused on lessons learned and cover a wide variety of subject areas–over 470 reports in just the past 2 1/2 years. http://www.gao.gov/search?q=Lessons+Learned