ERP Implementation Lessons Learned
This is a practical guide to building a lessons learned for an erp implementation project — what went well and badly, captured to improve future projects, adapted to the realities of replacing or deploying an enterprise resource planning system across the whole organisation.
What a Lessons Learned is
A lessons learned is what went well and badly, captured to improve future projects. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Lessons Learned. On an erp implementation project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an ERP Implementation project
ERP Implementation projects live or die on replacing or deploying an enterprise resource planning system across the whole organisation. A well-built lessons learned gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how erp implementation projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- What happened
- Impact
- Root cause
- Recommendation
ERP Implementation-specific considerations
Tailor the lessons learned to the risks that most often derail erp implementation projects:
- Under-estimated data migration
- Business-process change resistance
- Customisation over-reach
Example
On a real erp implementation project, the lessons learned would be shaped by replacing or deploying an enterprise resource planning system across the whole organisation. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — under-estimated data migration, business-process change resistance, customisation over-reach — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.