| Course | MGMT 620 Project Evaluation & Assessment (MGMT620) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 8 |
| Assignment | Lessons Learned Training Project |
| Paper type | Training summary and PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes |
| Length | about 1,440 words, 5 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: per the course guide, two files: a 1-page Word summary of the training and a PowerPoint of at least 20 slides conveying it, with at least 5 additional resources such as trade books, articles, case studies or online resources |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| Points | 150 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | MS in Project Management |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 8 in Liberty's published MGMT 620 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGMT 620 Week 8
From Folder to Practice: A Lessons Learned Training Session for a Health System's Project Teams
[Student Name]
School of Business, Liberty University
MGMT 620: Project Evaluation & Assessment
Lessons Learned Training Project (training summary and presentation)
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The health system, its project office and the examples are composites standing in for the organization a student trains; the research, Thomas's text, the PMBOK Guide and Scripture are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for MGMT 620.
From Folder to Practice: A Lessons Learned Training Session for a Health System's Project Teams
Training Summary (one-page Word document)
Title: From Folder to Practice: Making Lessons Learned Work in Our Projects. Audience: the 40 project managers and team leads in the health system's project management office, plus clinical and facilities sponsors who wish to attend. Length: 75 minutes, in person, with a 20-minute exercise. Purpose: our shared lessons learned folder holds 214 entries from twelve years of projects, and the folder's access log shows that eleven were opened in the past year. Several recent projects repeated problems that earlier projects had documented. This training gives teams a practical method for capturing lessons that others can use and for making sure lessons change the next project.
Objectives: participants who complete the session will explain why lessons fail to travel between projects; write a lesson as a cause, an effect and a recommended action; and hold a phase-end review that assigns each lesson an owner and a due date. Agenda: why our lessons are not being used (10 minutes); a five-step method for lessons learned (20 minutes); writing usable lessons and assigning owners (15 minutes); exercise on a recent project (20 minutes); next steps and the quarterly check (10 minutes). Materials: the presentation, a one-page lesson template and the new review schedule. Resources: Thomas's Basics of Project Evaluation and Lessons Learned, the PMBOK Guide's lessons learned register, and research by Williams, Busby, von Zedtwitz and Duffield and Whitty.
Slide 1: From Folder to Practice
- Making lessons learned work in our projects
- Project management office training, 75 minutes
Speaker notes: Welcome. Today is about one question: when we learn something on a project, how do we make sure the next project benefits? By the end, you will have a method and a template you can use on your current project.
Slide 2: The Problem in Numbers
- 214 lessons in our shared folder
- 11 opened in the past year
- 3 recent projects repeated earlier mistakes
Speaker notes: Every figure on this slide is drawn from our own shared folder and its access log. We are good at writing lessons down and poor at using them. The clinic expansion last spring repeated a permitting delay documented twice before. The problem is not effort; it is the system.
Slide 3: What We Will Cover
- Why lessons fail to travel
- A five-step method
- Writing usable lessons
- Practice on a real project
Speaker notes: We will spend most of our time on method and practice. You will leave with one lesson from your own project written in the new format.
Slide 4: Why Lessons Fail to Travel
- Teams disband before reviewing
- Projects are complex and unique
- Lessons are stored, not applied
Speaker notes: Drawing on a large survey of project managers, Williams (2008) found that project teams which break up at closeout, on work that is never quite repeated, rarely carry lessons forward. Our folder shows the third barrier: lessons go in and nothing comes out.
Slide 5: Reviews Happen Too Rarely
- Few projects get a formal review
- Time and attention move on
- Reviews focus on outputs
Speaker notes: In the survey of research and development projects by von Zedtwitz (2002), only about one in five received a post-project review, and those that did tended to focus on technical results rather than how the project was managed. Our numbers are similar: about a quarter of our projects in the past two years held a closing review.
Slide 6: Reviews That Do Happen Stay Shallow
- First explanations accepted
- Remedies too vague to act on
- Specific events, no general lesson
Speaker notes: In the close study by Busby (1999), reviews did share useful knowledge, yet participants settled on the first plausible cause and proposed fixes too general to carry out. "Communicate better" is a remedy no one can check. We will practice going one level deeper.
Slide 7: What a Lesson Is For
- To change what someone does next time
- If no one acts on it, it is a record, not a lesson
Speaker notes: This is the core idea of the session. A lesson is only learned when someone does something differently because of it. Everything else today serves that purpose.
Slide 8: A Five-Step Method
- Capture
- Analyze
- Store
- Share
- Apply
Speaker notes: Our method follows Thomas (2015), for whom lessons learned is a sequence of steps across the project, not one meeting held at closeout. We will walk through each step and what it looks like in our office.
Slide 9: Step 1, Capture During the Project
- Short review at each phase end
- Team still together, memories fresh
- 45 minutes, standard questions
Speaker notes: Do not wait for closeout. A brief review at the end of design, construction or implementation catches lessons while the people who know the details are still on the project. The template asks three standard questions: which practices helped, which hurt, and which one change the next team should make.
Slide 10: Step 2, Analyze to the Cause
- Ask why until you reach something we can change
- Separate symptoms from causes
- Check for patterns across projects
Speaker notes: Here is where we avoid Busby's shallow diagnosis. For the clinic permit delay, the first answer was "the city was slow." The third why was that our intake form did not ask for the zoning variance date. That is a cause we can fix.
Slide 11: Step 3, Store in the Register
- One lessons learned register for each project
- Tagged by project type and phase
- Searchable from the project office site
Speaker notes: The PMBOK Guide describes a lessons learned register that is updated throughout the project and becomes part of the organization's knowledge at closeout (Project Management Institute, 2017). Ours will replace the folder, with tags so you can search for lessons from similar projects.
Slide 12: Step 4, Share Through People
- Kickoff conversation with a peer who did similar work
- Monthly lessons spot in the project managers' meeting
- Register search at project start
Speaker notes: Williams (2008) emphasizes that lessons often move between projects through people more effectively than through documents. So every new project will begin with a thirty-minute conversation with a peer who led a similar project, in addition to a register search.
Slide 13: Step 5, Apply and Verify
- Each lesson has an owner and a due date
- Owner reports when it is applied
- Quarterly check by the project office
Speaker notes: This is the step our folder never had. Every lesson leaves the review with a named owner and a date. Each quarter, the project office will check a sample of lessons and report which have changed practice.
Slide 14: Writing a Usable Lesson
- What happened
- Why it happened
- What to do differently, by whom
Speaker notes: Use this three-part format. A lesson written this way can be used by someone who was not on the project. Compare "permit was late" with "permit was delayed six weeks because the intake form omitted the variance date; facilities planning will add the field by June."
Slide 15: Weak and Strong Lessons
- Weak: "Improve communication with vendors"
- Strong: "Equipment vendor missed two deliveries because no one confirmed dock times; project coordinator will confirm 48 hours ahead"
Speaker notes: The weak lesson is true and useless. The strong lesson names a cause, an action and an owner. Notice that the strong lesson is also easier to check at the quarterly review.
Slide 16: Lessons Live in the Whole System
- People, culture, processes and technology
- A lesson stuck in one layer fails
Speaker notes: Duffield and Whitty (2015) propose a systemic model of lessons learned in which learning depends on people, culture, processes and technology working together. A lesson stored in our register but contradicted by a procedure, or known to one person but never written, will not change practice. That is why our method touches every layer.
Slide 17: Exercise
- Pick one problem from your current or last project
- Ask why three times
- Write the lesson in the three-part format
- Name an owner and a date
Speaker notes: Take twenty minutes in pairs. Each of you will leave with one lesson written in the new format, ready to enter in the register. I will ask two pairs to share.
Slide 18: What Changes Starting Monday
- Phase-end reviews in every project schedule
- Register replaces the shared folder
- Peer kickoff conversations
- Quarterly check begins in July
Speaker notes: These are the four changes the project office is making. The review dates will be added to your schedules this week. The old folder will remain read-only while we move its most useful lessons into the register.
Slide 19: Why This Matters to Us
- Better projects for patients and staff
- Stewardship of the system's resources
- Proverbs 1:5 on the wise growing in learning
Speaker notes: Our projects build the clinics, systems and spaces where care is delivered. Repeating a mistake wastes money that could serve patients. Proverbs calls the wise to keep increasing in learning (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 1:5). Learning from our projects is one practical way we honor the trust that patients and our community place in us.
Slide 20: Resources
- Thomas (2015), The Basics of Project Evaluation and Lessons Learned
- Project Management Institute (2017), PMBOK Guide
- Williams (2008); von Zedtwitz (2002); Busby (1999); Duffield and Whitty (2015)
Speaker notes: The handout carries every reference in full. Thomas's book includes templates we adapted for today, and the four articles are available through the system's library if you want to read further.
References
Busby, J. (1999). An assessment of post-project reviews. Project Management Journal, 30(3), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697289903000304
Duffield, S., & Whitty, S. J. (2015). Developing a systemic lessons learned knowledge model for organisational learning through projects. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 311-324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.07.004
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)
Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (6th ed.).
Thomas, W. H. (2015). The basics of project evaluation and lessons learned (2nd ed.). CRC Press.
von Zedtwitz, M. (2002). Organizational learning through post-project reviews in R&D. R&D Management, 32(3), 255-268. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9310.00258
Williams, T. (2008). How do organizations learn lessons from projects, and do they? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(2), 248-266. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2007.912920
What the MGMT 620 Week 8 instructions ask
The final module of MGMT 620 holds the Lessons Learned Training Project, worth 150 points, and Quiz 3, with chapters 9, 10 and 12 of Thomas and a presentation. The guide describes the project as two files. The first is a Word document of one page that summarizes the training. The second is a PowerPoint presentation of at least twenty slides that conveys the training's content. The presentation must draw on at least five additional resources, which the guide says can range from trade books and articles to case studies and online resources. Because the course has spent three modules on Thomas's book, the training is the place to turn evaluation and lessons learned into something a real team could use the following Monday.
How this MGMT 620 Week 8 example is built
The summary page names the audience, 40 project managers and team leads in a health system's project office, states three learning objectives, and lays out a 75-minute agenda with an exercise. The deck opens with the problem in numbers: 214 lessons in a shared folder, eleven opened in the past year. Early slides explain why lessons fail to travel, drawing on Williams and von Zedtwitz. The middle slides teach a five-step method from Thomas, capture, analyze, store, share and apply, with the PMBOK Guide's lessons learned register and Busby's warning about shallow diagnosis. Later slides add owners, deadlines and a quarterly check, Duffield and Whitty's systemic view, and a short exercise on a real project. The close returns to Proverbs on the wise increasing in learning.
MGMT 620 Week 8 grading rubric: where the points go
The project is graded on both files and on how well they work together. The summary should fit on one page and tell a reader the training's audience, purpose, objectives and structure. The presentation should meet the twenty-slide minimum with content that teaches, not slides of headings, and its sources should include at least five additional resources beyond the course text. Graders look for accurate use of Thomas's lessons learned process and of the research, practical guidance a team could apply, and a design suited to training, with an exercise or discussion. Speaker notes that carry the explanation keep the slides clean. Citations placed in the notes or on the slides, with a closing slide of sources, complete the assignment.
MGMT 620 Week 8 help: mistakes that cost points
Many training decks are lectures on why lessons learned matter, with little on how to do it. Spend most of the slides on method: when to hold a review, how to write a lesson so someone else can use it, who owns it and how the organization checks that it was applied. Build in an exercise using a real recent project, because participants remember what they practice. Hold the slides to headings and brief bullets, and let the speaker notes do the explaining. Count the slides; title, agenda and reference slides count toward twenty only if the guide's minimum allows, so add content slides to be safe. Keep the summary to one page by cutting the agenda to its main blocks.
Related MGMT 620 sample papers
Other MGMT 620 weeks
- MGMT 620 Week 2: Forum 1: Defining Project Success
- MGMT 620 Week 4: Forum 2: Measuring Benefits
- MGMT 620 Week 5: Forum 3: Post-Project Reviews
- MGMT 620 Week 6: Project Evaluation Research Paper
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MGMT 620 Week 8 questions, answered
What is the MGMT 620 Lessons Learned Training Project?
Worth 150 points and submitted in the last module, the project pairs a one-page Word summary of a lessons learned training session and a PowerPoint of at least twenty slides with five or more additional resources.
Where can I find a free MGMT 620 Week 8 sample paper?
A complete MGMT 620 Week 8 training project, a one-page summary and twenty slides with speaker notes for a health system's project office, appears on this page.
How many slides does the MGMT 620 training project need?
At least twenty slides that carry the training's content, submitted with a separate one-page Word document summarizing the session's audience, objectives and agenda.
How should a lesson learned be written?
As a short statement of what happened, why it happened and what should be done differently next time, specific enough that someone who was not on the project can act on it.
What else is due in MGMT 620 Module/Week 8?
Quiz 3, a 50-point open-book quiz of 25 objective questions, with chapters 9, 10 and 12 of Thomas and a presentation; the module ends on Friday.
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