Learning from mistakes from IT Projects

IT projects do not always lead to the results and goals which were set at the start of the project. Not getting the required result from an IT project indicate that there are lessons to be learnt from these failed IT projects. However this does not always happen. In this article we will outline why we do not learn from these mistakes.

It pays to think about this: do you learn from your experiences or do the same challenges always surface again? Do you keep sorting the same issues for every project?

It is very useful to learn from mistakes and improve future IT projects or any other project in your organisation. But unfortunately we don’t always learn past mistakes and fail to implement improvements.

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Learning from IT mistakes

Learning lessons from IT projects is projected as negative

The project management branch has to think about this on a broad scale. Putting too much focus on mistakes will be less motivating for staff. It is better to include successes from the IT project because some of the best lessons we can learn are not from mistakes we make but from the things that we do well. A combination of successes and mistakes to be learnt from any IT project is a good mix to keep motivation and learn valuable lessons for future projects.

IT project conclusions are not stored and used properly

One of the biggest problems is that the conclusions from IT projects are noted and then stored in a knowledge base and no one will read them or use them for any future projects! An alternative is to record a video blog or audio record of the lessons learned. You can make a very interesting piece of content on your smartphone in no time. Involvement will be much larger than using for example a text document.

If your organisation does use a knowledge base make sure it is easy to use and add a search function so people in your organisation can easily find solutions.

Excuses not to learn from IT projects

There are always excuses not to learn from past projects. The most common one is that people in the organisation are too busy. By actually taking time out and learning lessons from previous projects your organisation can save time! This excuse often comes with the excuse that there is no budget available for evaluating projects. For every project there should be a budget available to learn lessons and discuss the project. This will save time and resources in the future.

Another excuse is that people are sometimes simply too polite to give criticism. They know that people have been working hard on the project and don’t want to demotivate them by giving criticism. It is however vital that negative feedback is given. Not to upset people but to make them learn! As stated before this can be done by giving feedback for the whole project and include negative but more importantly also positive feedback.

IT Projects Tech-Wales

At Tech-Wales we have great experience of implementing IT projects and we have an extended knowledge base to help complete your IT project achieving all goals and results. Our excellent IT consultancy services will help your organisation get more from its IT infrastructure saving you time and money. Do not hesitate to contact us to help your business forward.