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Project Management
Michael Hamilton 2006/07
Objectives
Differentiate between business project management and legal project management
Discuss key project management skills
Develop a process for managing projects to the legal process
Draft templates for documenting case management
Common causes for project failure
Build a Case Management Plan for a fictitious case
What is a “project”?
A project is a unique effort with a defined beginning, a defined end, specific deliverables, and defined resources.
ResourcesSchedule
Scope
Business Project Management v. Legal Project Management
Business— Budget drives all activity
— Milestones derived from mix of staffing and budget available
— Personnel can be dedicated to the project
— Level of flexibility depending on market conditions
Legal— Docket drives most activity
— Milestones derived from mix of docket and court deadlines
— Personnel (attorneys or paralegals) are rarely dedicated to one project
— Little flexibility in deadlines
Basics of Project Management
Planning, planning, planning— Have templates prepared to plug and play— Outcome should be a “repeatable process”
Ensure that all team members contribute to the planning
Document all decisions and circulate for approval— Metrics derived will be invaluable— Metrics will help in future planning
Update plan as changes in process occur— The version of the document at the “end” of the case should be representative
of what ACTUALLY happened
Project Management Defined
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project. Meeting or exceeding stakeholder needs and expectation invariably involves balancing competing demands among:—scope, time cost, and quality—stakeholders with differing needs and expectations—identified requirements (needs) and unidentified requirements
(expectations)
Key General Project Management Skills
Leading
Communicating
Negotiating
Problem Solving
Influencing
Leading
Leading and managing: one w/o the other is likely to produce poor results
Leading Involves:—Establishing direction—Aligning people—Motivating and inspiring
The Project manager is generally expected to be the project’s leader as well
Leadership develops daily, not in day
Communicating
Involves the exchange of information
The sender is responsible for the making the information clear, unambiguous, and complete so that the receiver can receive it correctly.
The receiver is responsible for making sure that the information is received in its entirety and understood correctly.
Has many dimensions:—Written and oral, listening and speaking—Internal and external—Formal and informal —Vertical and horizontal
Negotiating
Involves conferring with others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement
Agreements may be negotiated directly or with assistance
During the course of a typical project, project staff are likely to negotiate for any or all of the following—Scope, cost and schedule objectives—Changes to scope cost or schedule—Contract terms and conditions—Resources
Problem Solving
Involves a combination of problem definition and decision making
It is concerned with problems that have already occurred
Problem definition requires distinguishing between causes and symptoms—Problems may be internal—Problems may be external
Decision making includes analyzing the problem to identify viable solutions, and then making a choice from among them
"The true measure of leadership is influence”
Influencing
Involves the ability to “get things done”
Requires an understanding from both the formal and informal structures of all the organizations involved – the performing organization, the customer, and others as appropriate.
Requires an understanding of the mechanics of power and politics—Power – the potential ability to influence behavior, to change the
course of events, to overcome resistance and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do
—Politics – getting collective action from a group of people who may have quite different interests; it is about being willing to use conflict and disorder creatively
Applying P.M. Skills to Litigation Support
Diagnose the present
Foretell the future
Define your limitations & your purpose
Rule the Plan – Don’t let the Plan rule you
Implement a Plan-Based – Not a task based approach
Manage your meeting like a carefully crafted dinner party
Applying P.M. Skills to Litigation Support
Embrace the art of expediting tasks
Know thyself – and they project sponsor
Projecting forward: Play the part of clairvoyant
It’s about THEM – not YOU
The R&R Factor (React & Regroup)
The Document Processing Workflow
Litig
ation
Phas
es
Planning Preparation Collect Process Review Produce Use
DocumentRequest Received
Review request and determine
response strategy
Create CaseMapDatabase
Enter known persons, facts and
issues into CaseMap
Determine document processing
Existing document collection?
Identify possible sources and custodians
Create doc processing plan
based on volume and data type(s)
Create coding manual & doc.
processing guidelines
Determine review methodology for production and
privilege
Select vendor for scanning, coding,
EDD (including forensics)
Develop collection procedures and
schedule
Train collection team
Explain collection procedures to
custodians
Collect documents from custodians
Create chain of custody procedure for electronic files
Hold project kickoff meeting
Collect electronic media from IT
resources
Prep media for processing
Process electronic data via EDD
methods (dedupe)
Process paper by scanning and
coding
Return original media to client and
keep copy
Log all media received (paper and electronic)
Import processed hard copy and
electronic discovery
Conduct review using defined
review methodology
Manage for protective orders
and privilege
Create shell databases
Determine how to produce (meet & confer decision)
Prep documents for production (bates label, confidential
stamps)
Run the document production from
the database
Generate privilege log from the
database
Update history field in database
with production #s
Generate invoice / process other
party documents
Identify all responsive document
Search and review: determine
trial exhibits
Maintain databases and
load depositions
Export identified trial exhibits to trial presentation tool
Search and review: create
witness notebooks
No
Yes
Update CaseMap database with new facts, people, and
issues
Archive case after judgment
Planning Phase
Review and Draft Document Requests— Determine time line for document processing
— Set deadlines for initial plans
Determine Response Timeline— Understand what documents go into the response
— Start pleadings database
Develop Response Strategy
Draft the Case Project Plan— Template to be completed by multiple team members
— Once completed, use it as on-going reference and training tool
Determine if there is an Existing Document Collection— Generally applicable only to ongoing client work
Preparation Phase
List Potential Sources and Custodians
Evaluate Process Plan Based on Document Size and Type
Set Document Processing Treatment and Database Design
Plan Logistics and Staffing
Draft Technology and Training Plan
Select Vendor
Develop Collection Schedule
Document Collection Procedures
Conduct Collection Team Training
Collection Phase
Hold Project Status Meeting— Always have an agenda
— Always take and distribute action items
— Evaluate budget based on volume of information to be processed
Go To Document Custodians/Explain Review
Go To Technology Custodians/Explain Review
Conduct Review — Electronic Docs
— Non-Electronic Docs
— Review workflow established in the Preparation Phase
Processing Phase
Non-Electronic Documents— Receive and log documents
— Prepare materials
— Image
— OCR
— Return materials
Electronic Documents— Receive and log media
— Send to vendor
— Load to server
— De-Duplicate
— Render to image and database
Storage Phase Create Shell Databases for Case— From scratch or from an existing database— Maintain “structure integrity” when creating databases
Manage for Protective Orders and Privilege— Will you run your privilege log from the database?— Will you export privilege materials to separate database?
Load Data and Take Database Metrics— True legal project management lies in the metrics— Metrics will help determine future time lines and costs
Sample Database Metrics
Completion of Assignment
100,000 100,000 100,000
25,000
75,000
50,000
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
Betty Carol Allison
TotalAssigned
TotalReviewed
Production Phase
Determine Which Documents to be Produced
Identify Selected Materials to be Produced
Determine How to Produce
Prepare Materials for Production
Conduct Production
Prepare Identified Documents to be Provided to Opposing Party(ies)
Update Field in Database
Send Documents to Opposing Party(ies)
Generate Invoice
Process Other Party(ies) Documents
Use Phase Search and Review Database
— Single data loads?— Multiple data loads?— Separate databases for electronic versus paper?
Maintain and Update Database With New Data— Database should always help tell the story of your case and how
each document was used— Maintain standard configuration and processes
Archive Data Upon Case Completion— Very important for storage planning— Ensure that archival is agreed upon in advance with the team— Choose storage medium to facilitate ease of restoration later
Conclusion
No matter if you are managing a business process or a legal process, planning is key to success
Build planning into your workflow
Create sample plan and send to attorney for review rather than awaiting their participation
Remember to take metrics – it is the secret to knowing how long tasks will take (should take) on future cases with similar structures
Avoid the common causes for project failure
Poor up-front planning
Incomplete or vague project work plan
Weak ongoing project management discipline
Inadequate resources
People problems
Lifecycle problems— A failure to clearly and completely define the requirements, resulting in building the wrong
features or leaving gaps in the features needed.
— New or state of the art technology may cause unanticipated problems.
— A poor technical design is not allowing the solution to be easily modified or is not scalable.
— Requirements are not frozen late in the project and continued change requests start to cause the project to drift.
— Technology components do not fit together as designed.
— Poor initial testing techniques cause repeated errors and rework in later tests.