4.4 Manage Project Knowledge
Capture what the team is learning so it does not walk out the door with them.
Executing / Integration · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map
Why it matters
A hard-won lesson that only lives in one person's head is lost the moment that person moves on, and the next project pays for relearning it.
What done looks like
Lessons learned are written down and existing know-how has been put to use.
First time tip
Log a lesson the week it happens, while the details are still sharp. A lessons register built entirely at closeout is mostly guesswork.
What you need (Inputs)
- Project Management Plan
- Lessons Learned Register
How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: sprint retrospective evidence (driftless/models/delivery.py:Sprint) — a sprint closed with retrospective notes is a lesson captured, the way a predictive project files one as prose - Project Team Assignments
- Resource Breakdown Structure
- Stakeholder Register
- Deliverables
- Enterprise Environmental Factors
- Organizational Process Assets
How you do it (Tools & Techniques)
What you get (Outputs)
- Lessons Learned Register
How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: sprint retrospective evidence (driftless/models/delivery.py:Sprint) — a sprint closed with retrospective notes is a lesson captured, the way a predictive project files one as prose - Project Management Plan
Worked example
After the hidden water damage delayed framing by a week, the project manager writes down that the pre-renovation inspection should have included a moisture reading behind that wall, so the next branch renovation budgets time for it.
Common pitfalls
- Waiting until the project closes to try to remember what went wrong.
- Recording lessons nobody on the next project will ever read.
- Only logging failures, so the team repeats mistakes it already avoided once.
How driftless helps
- Lessons Learned Register can be created in the wizard.