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Do you learn from your projects? It is imperative that services organisations in any field learn from previous projects. Post implementation reviews are a must to understand what went well and what didn’t quite go according to plan!

Lessons should be taken and applied to future projects Perhaps one of the most important of these that can be overlooked are those elements of a project that are repeatable across different customers. Project intellectual property(IP) if you will. Now this is not IP that you will go and try to protect yourself with in the forms of patents (although if it’s that good – of course you should!). No, this is more internal IP that is relevant to your business project that helps you deliver more profitably, which is why we are all in business after all.

There are two forms of IP that you could consider:

Process IP

How you delivered the project. What particular elements of the project plan and implementation can you take out of one project and apply to others. By repeating process you deliver;

1. Faster planning processes with a more robust confidence in the project schedule.
2. A defined methodology that is understood by the project manager and the team. The process becomes second nature.
3. The ability to spend time focusing on those elements that are unique to that project.

Technical IP

Now I’m not talking just IT or engineering here. By technical, I really mean the tools with which you delivered the project that can be re-used in other projects. You are the experts in your own fields and will understand the “technical” delivery elements of any project that you undertake. In IT terms (sorry about this – it’s my background ) – it might be a piece of code that you have written.  For a marketing consultant, it might be a suite of useful “How to ” notes that all customers might find relevant. Technical IP, as with Process IP,  essentially means “re-use”.

• It doesn’t need to be developed from scratch.
• It saves you time.
• Your project becomes more profitable.

Every business has their own process and technical ip. But in order for it to be of any use to your business you need to understand what that IP actually is a detailed level. You need to ensure that you have the tools in place to capture your IP, to measure it’s impact and to be able to apply it out across the relevant parts of your business. Without measurement or data, your IP will remain undiscovered and it’s impact on your bottom line will not materialise. How do you capture your business IP?

Photo: Personal Development Blog