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.