Lessons learned - Citizen Service Portal (BSP-2026), workshop of 14/07/2027
- Project manager
- Dr Anke Berger
- Participants
- Project team (6), IT coordination, head of citizen service department, vendor
- Duration
- 01/05/2026 - 30/06/2027, budget €480,000, closed with 6 weeks' delay at M4
| No.1 | Title2 | Type3 | Category4 | Situation5 | Impact6 | Recommendation7 | Owner / due date8 | Action status9 | Scope10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LL-01 | Test interfaces to specialist systems with the versions actually in use before signing the contract | Needs improvement | Procurement and contracts | The vendor had described the connection to the residents' register as standard in the offer. The first test in month eight showed that the version used at the town hall is not supported. | Six weeks' delay at M4, €14,500 for the early update, two additional steering committee meetings | Add an interface test with the system versions in use as a criterion before award in the tender | Head of IT coordination - add to procurement checklist by 31/10/2027 | Open | Organisation |
| LL-02 | Involve the staff council from the first workshop, not only for the works agreement | Positive | Stakeholder involvement and communication | The staff council sat on the project team from kick-off. The works agreement on performance monitoring was signed in October 2026 without renegotiation. | No delay through co-determination; three to five months in comparable city projects recently | Add staff council involvement from project start as a fixed item in the city's project charter | Organisational development - amend charter template by 30/09/2027 | Open | Organisation |
| LL-03 | Choose pilot services so that they run without the most critical interface | Positive | Planning and schedule | The three pilot services (resident parking permit, dog tax, bulky waste) needed no access to the residents' register. The pilot therefore started on time on 30/11/2026 despite the interface problem. | Pilot start on plan; 412 online applications in the first month as an argument in the budget debate | When selecting pilot scope, check dependency on external interfaces as an exclusion criterion | Dr Berger - into project handbook by 31/08/2027 | Open | Area |
| LL-04 | Plan training only once post assignments in the department are settled | Needs improvement | Team and organisation | The January training for the public order department was postponed twice because the two appointment booking posts had not been reassigned until February. | Seven weeks' delay in training, vendor invoiced €2,400 for cancellation | Add post assignment as a prerequisite in the training plan; carry open assignments in the status report as a risk | Dr Berger - project handbook, by 31/08/2027 | Open | Project |
Notes on the fields
- 1No.: Sequential. Later people refer to "LL-03", not to "the thing with the interface".
- 2Title: One sentence that contains the lesson - not the topic. "Test interfaces before signing the contract" rather than "interface".
- 3Type: Positive (worked, do it again) or Needs improvement (did not work). Both belong on the list, otherwise it turns into a list of defects.
- 4Category: Topic of the lesson, so the list can be filtered later, e.g. all lessons on procurement and contracts. The Excel list offers eight categories to choose from, your own are possible.
- 5Situation: What happened - concretely, with time and people involved, without blame. This is the column that still has to make sense in two years.
- 6Impact: What it cost or gained: weeks, euros, meetings. Without a number nobody takes the lesson seriously.
- 7Recommendation: What should go differently next time - as an action someone can carry out, not as a wish ("communicate better").
- 8Owner / due date: Who makes sure the recommendation lands somewhere - procurement checklist, project handbook, template - and by when.
- 9Action status: Status of the recommendation: Open, In progress, Implemented or Rejected. Check it on the due date from the previous column, not only at the next project.
- 10Scope: Project, area or organisation: whom does the lesson apply to? Only those with scope organisation belong in the central collection.
What lessons learned are and when to collect them
Lessons learned - also project experience, post-project review or retrospective - are the written-down insights from a project: what worked and should be done the same way again, what did not work and what follows from it. They are the part of project close-out that has an effect beyond the project. The final report says whether the project met its objective; the lessons learned say what the next project gets out of it.
They are collected in the lessons learned workshop, usually one to two hours with the project team shortly before or after close-out. In agile teams the same session is called a retrospective and happens after every sprint; in longer classic projects it pays to collect after every phase or major milestone, because after fourteen months nobody remembers what went wrong in month three.
The most common mistake is not the collecting but the filing. A list of twenty insights in the project folder only helps the next project if someone enters them where the next project starts: in the project charter template, in the procurement checklist, in the project handbook. That is why every row in this template has an owner and a due date.
The template comes as an Excel list for collecting and evaluating, as a Word document with an agenda for the workshop (preparation, timeline, collecting, rating, actions) and as a PDF, plus the completed sample above from the fictional "Citizen Service Portal" project of the City of Lindenau.
How to fill in the lessons learned template
The workshop does not start with the table but with a timeline: milestones on the wall, everyone adds what stuck in their memory, good moments and bad. Only then is it sorted and transferred to the list. Whoever writes straight into the table gets the three things that annoyed people most recently and nothing from the first half of the year.
Per row, first the situation: what happened, when, with whom - without blame, that ruins the rest of the workshop. Then the impact with a number: six weeks, €14,500, two meetings. Only then the recommendation, and as an action someone can carry out. "Communicate better" is not a recommendation; "add interface test as a criterion in the tender" is.
The title comes last and contains the lesson itself, not the topic. For the type, distinguish between Positive and Needs improvement - and make sure both occur. Nobody likes reading a list of nothing but mistakes, and the things that went well otherwise leave with the team.
Finally scope and owner. What concerns only this project stays in the project folder; what concerns the organisation gets an owner who enters it in the central collection, the template or the checklist - with a date. The numbered notes on the sheet above go through the columns one by one.
Typical mistakes with lessons learned
- Only the last three months
- The workshop takes place after project end, and everyone remembers the go-live stress. What went wrong with the tender in month two is gone. Collect after every phase, or at least put the timeline on the wall.
- Culprits instead of situations
- "The vendor gave us wrong information" - from that sentence on everyone in the room is defending themselves. "The connection was described as standard in the offer, the test took place in month eight" - that you can learn from.
- Recommendations as wishes
- "Test earlier", "coordinate better", "allow more time". Everyone signs that and nobody does it. A recommendation names an action, a place it belongs, and a person.
- No number for the impact
- "Led to delays" - how many? Six weeks and €14,500 get the recommendation into the procurement checklist; "delays" gets it into the folder.
- The list stays in the project folder
- Twenty insights, neatly captured, and the next project makes the same mistake because nobody changed the project charter template. Without an owner and a date per row the workshop was a debrief, not experience capture.
When the Excel template stops being enough
For one project and one workshop the list is the right format. It gets difficult with the question that actually matters: what have the organisation's last ten projects learned about procurement? For that, ten Excel files in ten project folders would have to be searched, each with slightly different columns. In practice nobody asks, and the experience sits with the people who have since moved on.
In WORKSPACE.PM every insight is an entry in the project and can be found via search:
| In the file | WORKSPACE.PM |
|---|---|
| The list sits in the project folder, separate from risks, reports and team. | Lessons learned are entries in the project, next to risks, team and status reports, and are maintained where the project runs. |
| Whoever wants to know what other projects learned about interfaces opens ten files. | The global full-text search finds lessons learned alongside projects, risks, meetings and wiki pages, across projects too. |
| Photos of the timeline and workshop minutes sit somewhere next to it. | Images and documents attach directly to the entry, with preview and download. |
| Follow-up questions on an insight go by e-mail and get lost. | Comments and activities appear as posts on the entry. |
This template exists in WORKSPACE.PM as lessons learned entries inside the project
In WORKSPACE.PM every insight is an entry in the project. Images and documents hang on the entry as attachments, follow-up questions and activities appear as comments underneath, and the global search finds lessons learned alongside projects, risks, meetings and wiki pages - across projects too.
See portfolio and project knowledge in WORKSPACE.PMThe workshop guide with placeholders - for upload into WORKSPACE.PM
The Word document also comes with placeholders in double curly braces in the header - project name, team, duration, budget and the latest status report. Uploaded in WORKSPACE.PM under Administration as a document template, it is filled from the project file with current project data, as a download or straight into the project file. You then enter the insights themselves in the workshop; placeholders without project data are shown by the wizard before generating.
Frequently asked questions about the lessons learned template
01What does the template cost, and do I have to sign up?
Nothing, and no. The files sit directly behind the links, without a form and without an e-mail address.
02What is the difference between lessons learned and the final project report?
The final report evaluates the project: objective met, budget kept, deliverables handed over. Lessons learned are part of it or an appendix - the insights that benefit other projects. The Excel list here can be taken over as an appendix to any final report.
03Lessons learned or retrospective?
Same goal, different rhythm. Retrospective is the agile term and takes place after every sprint; lessons learned classically means the session at project end or after a phase. The template works for both - for retrospectives the rows stay shorter.
04How long does a lessons learned workshop take?
One to two hours for a project with six to ten participants: twenty minutes timeline, thirty minutes collecting, thirty minutes rating and recommendations, the rest for owners and dates. The agenda is in the Word guide.
05Who should attend the workshop?
The project team, the project manager and - if possible - the vendor and a department representative. Preferably not the sponsor; in their presence situations turn into justifications.
06Does the template work in LibreOffice?
The Excel and Word files contain no macros and use only standard features such as drop-down lists and conditional formatting. LibreOffice replaces the Calibri font with Carlito, which has the same character widths, so line and page breaks stay the same. We have checked the files with Microsoft Office.
07May I adapt the template and use it at work?
Yes, commercially too, in any number of projects, with your own columns and categories. Only resale and publication as your own template are excluded.
File insights where the next project will find them
The sandbox opens a WORKSPACE.PM instance with demo projects, no registration. Create a lessons learned entry there and find it again via the global search.
Up and running in five minutes, no credit card.