Project management lessons learned: essential safety features

The conundrums of why we fail to learn from our project management mistakes are both frustrating and intriguing. This chapter presents the findings of a word and phrase content analysis on lessons learned terms from the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (2021) as compared to the findings based on reviewing project management article abstracts using Google Scholar (2000-2021). As safety features, lessons learned are essential project and project management processes that improve performance and help minimize and avoid problems. The findings indicate that in the context of the data-information-knowledge-wisdom pyramid, the guide focuses on the base of the pyramid (data and information) and presents lessons learned as artifacts and activities whereas the abstracts extend our understanding of lessons learned as higher-order forms of knowledge and learning that are more meaningful and useful. In doing so, we understand that knowledge is relational, dynamic, and changes as it circulates within and between project teams, departments, and organizations.