| Course | GM594 Project Closing, Ethics, and Professional Responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 4 |
| Paper type | Lessons learned record |
| Length | About 880 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MS in Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GM594 Unit 4
Seven Entries Someone Else Could Use: A Unit 4 Lessons Learned Record for a 911 Center's Backup Power
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GM594: Project Closing, Ethics, and Professional Responsibilities
Unit 4 Lessons Learned Record
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The emergency communications district, its contractors and every event are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Scope of the Record
The record covers the Ridgeline Emergency Communications District's project to replace its generator, transfer switch, uninterruptible power supply and equipment room cooling, from design through acceptance. Each entry gives the condition that existed, the event that followed, the practice recommended, and the owner responsible for applying it. Entries were drafted at a closeout session with the projects manager, the technical services manager, a dispatch supervisor and the design engineer, and each was checked against the project record before it was kept.
James Busby found that post-project reviews often produce lessons too general to use, and that reviews are more useful when they record specific conditions and causes (Busby, 1999). Every entry below names something a reader could check on their own project.
The Entries
1. Commissioning agent under the contractor's agreement. Condition: the commissioning agent was hired by the general contractor, as a line item in the construction contract. Event: the agent's report tested the transfer switch against 15 seconds, from its own template, instead of the 10 seconds in the design basis, and recorded a 14-second transfer as a pass. No one on the district's side noticed until the acceptance review. Practice: hire the commissioning agent directly under the owner's contract at the design stage, and give the agent the approved acceptance criteria in writing. Owner: the projects manager.
2. A dependent quantity left behind. Condition: the 60 percent drawings showed a fuel tank chosen for the smaller 400 kilowatt generator first proposed. Event: a change order upsized the generator to 500 kilowatts, but no one recalculated runtime, and the tank delivered 66 hours instead of 72. Practice: whenever a major piece of equipment changes size, list and recalculate every quantity that depends on it, such as fuel, cooling, breakers and pads, before approving the change. Owner: the design engineer, checked by the projects manager.
3. An alarm step nobody owned. Condition: alarm configuration was split between the generator vendor, who wired the alarms, and the monitoring vendor, who set up notifications. Event: the escalation to a second contact was never configured, and the gap was found only when the acceptance test left a text unanswered. Practice: name one owner for the alarm call tree in the contract, and include an unacknowledged-alarm escalation test in the acceptance criteria. Owner: the technical services manager.
4. Lead times quoted before an order. Condition: the switchgear lead time of 8 weeks was quoted at bid. Event: the order was placed six weeks after the bid, and the supplier's confirmed lead time was 22 weeks. Practice: treat any bid lead time as provisional, require written confirmation of a ship date within ten days of the order, and order long-lead equipment as soon as the design is fixed. Owner: the projects manager.
5. A buried line found during excavation. Condition: the public utility locate service marked public lines only. Event: a private electrical line to an old antenna shed was found at the fuel tank pad, which had to move. Practice: commission a private utility locate before the design is fixed for any new pad or trench. Owner: the design engineer.
6. Tests during a busy shift. Condition: tests were scheduled by the contractor. Event: two power tests fell on a busy weekend shift, and fire chiefs were not warned. Practice: schedule every power test with the dispatch operations manager and notify partner agencies at least 72 hours in advance. Owner: the dispatch operations manager.
7. A practice worth repeating: the weekly photo log. Condition: the projects manager photographed all concealed work, such as conduit runs before backfill, each week. Event: when the alarm wiring had to be traced, the photos located the conduit in minutes. Practice: keep a dated photo log of all concealed work, stored with the project record. Owner: the projects manager.
Six of the seven entries come from things that went wrong, but the seventh is a practice that went right, because a record of only failures teaches people what to avoid without showing what to repeat.
Where the Record Lives
Terry Williams found that organizations capture lessons more often than they reuse them, because records are stored where no one looks when the next project starts (Williams, 2008). This record is stored in three places. The full record sits in the district's shared project library, tagged by system and project phase, so a search for generator or commissioning finds it. A one-page summary has been sent to the state 911 association's facilities working group, where other districts' projects managers can see it. And the district's project startup checklist now requires the projects manager to read the lessons from the last three projects at kickoff and record which apply. The Project Management Institute describes the lessons learned register as a project document that should be used throughout a project and transferred to the organization's knowledge repository at closing (Project Management Institute, 2021).
References
Busby, J. S. (1999). An assessment of post-project reviews. Project Management Journal, 30(3), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697289903000304
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.).
Williams, T. (2008). How do organizations learn lessons from projects, and do they? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(2), 248-266. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2007.912920
GM594 Unit 4 instructions, in plain terms
GM594 Unit 4 asks you to write a lessons learned record for a completed project. State the record's scope and how entries were drafted and checked. Write each entry in the same fields: the condition that existed, the event that followed, the practice you recommend and the owner who should apply it. Make each entry specific enough that someone at another organization, who never saw your project, could check it against their own. Include at least one practice worth repeating, not only failures. Name roles, not people, and keep blame out of the record. Then say where the record is stored, who will see it and when it will be read on the next project, because lessons are lost more often through storage than through drafting. Expect about four pages with a table of entries, citing research on project learning in APA 7.
How the GM 594 Unit 4 example is put together
The scope note describes the Ridgeline district's generator, transfer switch, power supply and cooling project and a closeout session with four roles, citing Busby on reviews that produce lessons too general to use. Seven entries follow. A commissioning agent under the contractor's agreement recommends owner-hired commissioning with criteria in hand. A tank sized for a smaller generator recommends recalculating every dependent quantity when equipment changes. An unconfigured alarm escalation recommends one owner and an escalation test. An 8-week bid lead time that became 22 recommends confirming ship dates within ten days of order. A buried private line recommends a private locate. Tests on busy shifts recommend scheduling with dispatch and 72-hour notice. A weekly photo log is the practice to repeat, which the highlighted sentence explains. Storage in three places, citing Williams and the PMBOK guide, closes the record.
Where the points sit in the GM594 Unit 4 rubric
GM594 rubric credit for this record depends on entries that are specific, transferable and owned. Instructors look for a consistent structure across entries, such as condition, event, practice and owner. Specificity carries significant weight: an entry naming a target, a number or a contract arrangement earns far more than one advising better communication. Including a practice that worked shows balance. Naming roles rather than people keeps the record useful. The section on where the record lives, and when it will be read, earns credit because storage is where most lessons are lost. Research on post-project reviews and organizational learning should support the method. APA 7 citations come from Busby's study of post-project reviews, Williams on whether organizations learn from projects, and PMI's guidance on the lessons register.
Common GM594 Unit 4 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many GM594 Unit 4 records list general advice, such as plan better or communicate more, that no one could act on. Others record only failures, or assign blame to named people, which discourages honest entries next time. A common gap is reuse: records stored in a project folder and never read again change nothing. Some writers skip the owner field. Use the same fields for every entry, make each one specific enough to check, include something to repeat, name roles rather than people, give every practice an owner and say where the record lives and when the next project will read it.
Get a GM594 Unit 4 example written to your instructions
Real events make usable lessons, so share the Unit 4 case along with any issue log, change log or meeting notes, and the rubric. Entries arrive in five fields each, condition through storage place, written so a stranger at another organization could apply them. Your first custom sample carries no charge and arrives in 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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GM594 Unit 4 questions, answered
How many lessons should the record contain?
Enough to cover the events that mattered, often five to ten, and fewer strong entries beat many weak ones. The sample records seven, ordered by their effect on a future project's cost or schedule. A record padded with minor items buries the two or three lessons that would actually change how the next project runs.
Can lessons name the people responsible?
Generally not by name. A record assigning personal blame discourages honest entries on the next project and can be unfair to people who acted reasonably with what they knew. The sample names roles and conditions, such as the contractor's commissioning agent, and keeps the focus on practices. Accountability belongs in performance processes, not in a shared record.
Where can I find a free GM594 Unit 4 sample paper?
This page carries a full GM594 Unit 4 lessons learned record for a 911 center's backup power project, with seven specific entries, owners and a plan for reuse, and APA 7 references.
What is the lead lesson?
Hire the commissioning agent under the owner's own contract and give it the approved criteria. Under the contractor's agreement, the agent tested the transfer switch against its template's 15 seconds instead of the required 10.
Where does the record live?
In the district's shared project library tagged by system and phase, as a one-page summary sent to the state 911 association's facilities group, and on the startup checklist that requires the next project manager to read the last three projects' lessons at kickoff.