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Manage Your Project Like Attorneys Manage Matters
July 9, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices
Manage Your Project Like Attorneys Manage Matters
By Julia C. Forbes
One of the biggest responsibilities of a project manager is to develop and execute a project plan so that the stakeholders (lawyers) feel informed and have confidence that the project will be completed successfully. One of the best ways to instill that confidence from the beginning is to present a project plan that is comprehensive, well-organized and delivered in a manner that speaks to your stakeholders. There are many similarities in the way project plans and legal cases are constructed. In fact, the best project plan must contain many of the same things the best prepared case must contain. There are issues, rules, analysis and a conclusion in every case presented to any court. There are other similarities as well.
Planning a Project Is Like Preparing for a Case
Project Management: A project plan is typically document-intensive. Though there is a project timeline, a plan can and will change over time based on several external factors. And projects identify roles and responsibilities and have defined stakeholders.
Case Management: Without question, legal matters are document-intensive. Law firms use CaseMap or similar products, or they chart the course of a case on a white board. Legal matters have roles and responsibilities as well from the billing attorney to the first and second-year associates assigned to document review. Of course clients are the stakeholders the lawyers work so hard to serve.
Setting Expectations
Project Management: All project plans need a scope statement. This outlines the business problem and need, the justification for the formal project and the plan for completing the project. A project scope statement is a form of contract between you (the PM) and the sponsor and cannot be changed without sponsor approval.
Case Management: In most firms an engagement letter serves a purpose similar to a project scope statement. The letter often includes an analysis of the legal problem, the justification for needing legal representation, the approach that will be taken and the workflow process followed to bring the matter to a successful close.
Clarifying Communications
Project Management: An important aspect of any IT project is the communications plan, which outlines who on the project wants what information, in what format and when. The plan includes a provision for escalation, how risks will be handled, identified reserves and the metrics to determine quality project output. It also indicates the different locations in which all of your PM documents will be kept. It is important to organize PM documents logically so they are easy to access.
Case Management: The location and extent of a communications plan is where legal matters and project plans can differ somewhat, although there are many similarities. The communications plan of a legal matter may be described in the engagement letter and will typically indicate expectations for communications between lawyers and their clients as well as the method of communication. Legal documents, like project documents, may also be kept in multiple locations including a document management system, an extranet, a public folder, work group or shared personal folder structure.
Identifying Costs and Risks
Project Management: After the project plan has been created and scope statement agreed upon, the work on the project begins. First a project baseline is created where the work breakdown structure (WBS) listing all of the deliverables is composed. This is where schedule, risk and cost are identified. When estimating the costs of each task, resources are measured using an hourly rate, much like lawyers’ hourly rates on a legal matter. Projects can be screened for three types of risk: constants (known with reasonable precision), chance (risks and uncertainties) and decision variables (controllable). See www.maxvalue.com/tip087.htm. These risk categories are assigned based on screening questions.
Case Management: An article titled “Tips on Client Selection and Rejection” (Law Firm Management) describes a legal screening process similar to one used for projects. Client types are given grades based on risk categories labeled “A, B and C” and estimated that 20 percent fit into the A group (clients that are enjoyable to work with, pay on time and in full); 60 percent fit into the B group (clients that are like the A group but fall short in some category such as size or amount of business they generate); and the remaining 20 percent of clients rated “C,” those who cause malpractice suits, have collection problems, etc.
Preparing Effective Documents
Project Management: Rules for effective writing apply to both legal and PM documents. In an article written by Phillip K. Jannert on www.beyondcode.org, he describes the following as requirements for effective project documentation:
- Avoid useless documentation; be clear, concise and to the point.
- Focus on the unusual and don’t belabor the obvious! Know your audience.
- Use bulleted lists; they are your (and your readers’) friends.
- Use documentation that emphasizes fact over marketing.
- Annotate documents and keep graphics and charts in one document, not mixed in the document management system.
Case Management: An article detailing effective legal writing hints from Cornell University Law School indicates much of the same (www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Legal_writing):
- Any legal document must be concise, clear, and conform to the objective standards that have evolved in the legal profession.
- Be sensitive to the needs, level of interest and background of the parties to whom it is addressed.
- The legal profession has its own unique system of citation. It serves to provide the experienced reader with enough information to evaluate and retrieve the cited authorities.
Closing the Case
When a potential project comes your way, consider approaching it with the formality of a legal matter. Use all of the appropriate project management documents; identify stakeholders, costs, risks and timelines. Prepare documents that are clear, well-written and speak to your audience. Place all of these documents in a repository that team members can access for future reference. Recognizing the common ground that exists between managing projects and preparing legal cases can help you create a project plan that speaks to and is supported by all the stakeholders in your firm.
This article was first published in ILTA’s July, 2007 white paper titled “Project Management — Broadening Your Scope” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at http://www.iltanet.org.
Julia C. Forbes is the Training and Application Services Manager at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP. In her role, she manages a staff of support specialists in the firm’s Boston, Hartford and New York offices, and she directs and proposes training strategies and programs for technical training and evaluation of employee skills for the entire firm. Julia has 10 years of law firm experience, holding specialist and management positions in IT at other AmLaw 100 law firms. She has spoken at ILTA conferences and has been quoted in magazines such as Legal Management. She can be reached at jforbes@brownrudnick.com.
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