1.47 At the organisational level, the most common sources for identifying potential lessons learned in projects include: reviewing DMO's internal processes; analysing intelligence gained internally and from customers and suppliers in industry; assessing audit report recommendations; and implementing Government initiated reviews. Lessons are also identified at the individual project level, but not all of these have organisational significance.
1.48 Having identified lessons and assessed their organisational significance, implementation may involve developing new policies, guidance, processes, education and training, and sometimes cultural change. Each of these changes is likely to have a differing lead time for implementation and effect. For example, the effects from any major change to contracting practices would not be evident until a range of new projects had used the new practices and sufficient time had elapsed to assess the effectiveness of the changes. In many cases, this time period will be greater than a year, precluding an assessment of effectiveness in the follow-on DMO MPR.
1.49 A range of mechanisms exist to assess the lessons and action them. Audit recommendations are monitored through Management Action Plans registered on a central Audit Recommendations Management System and DMO officers are assigned responsibility for reporting implementation progress. The DMO uses a series of councils in specialist areas such as engineering, logistics, project management and procurement to consider business improvement initiatives in response to business needs. The DMO also makes use of its regular engagement with industry to exchange best practice and work through business issues such as contracting reform and approaches to intellectual property. The DMO's Quality and Environmental Management System (QEMS) includes a means to link lessons learned with each of the DMO process areas and also includes lessons identified from audit reports and reviews. Lessons and identified systemic issues are then incorporated into the related DMO Manuals, training courses and processes.
1.50 The DMO has also developed a series of checklists based on lessons learned to assist staff in areas such as identification of risks throughout the life cycle, preparation of project approval submissions and conduct of mandated systems engineering reviews. In parallel, contracting templates are regularly reviewed and updated based on lessons learned and feedback from industry.