Although lessons-learned activities aid software process improvement, few IT industry organizations regularly and adequately conduct them. Recent studies explain why, identifying 19 barriers for conducting lessons learned. The Postmortem Evaluation theory proposes that organizations almost only focus on what went wrong. 4ALL, a new lessons-learned method based on the appreciative inquiry approach, aims to facilitate learning. It was developed and evaluated in close collaboration with Ericsson. Through attentive moderating and careful timing, the 4ALL method emphasizes the importance of balancing excellences and challenges. It radically increases the identification of excellences and how to learn from what went right, enhancing participants' pride, and significantly increasing the appreciation of lessons-learned workshops at Ericsson.

A major challenge in process improvement is to understand process innovation. and improvement efficiency and use. How do we know that process innovations and improvements give organizational benefits? We need a mechanism for measuring. In this paper, we report from a longitudinal action research study at the telecom company Ericsson where a measurement mechanism was designed and successfully used in practice to understand, learn, and measure process efficiency. In the concrete, the measurement mechanism was built through empirical testing combined with using a goal-question-metrics (GQM) approach. The resulting measurement mechanism consists of four correlated metrics that indicate process use, process commitment, process learning, and process improvement. The same measurement mechanism can also he used to obtain feedback and evaluation, thereby allowing the organization to determine process efficiency and use, and to determine the success of the process improvements.