Guest Post by Jenny L. Lee, PMP, Senior Legal Project Manager, Seyfarth Shaw
If I’ve learned anything about legal project management over the past few years, it’s that the delivery of legal services requires flexibility…and discipline - diametrically opposed forces! Agile project management is not a magic bullet, it is, however, a mature and scalable approach that can be applied to legal. It provides much-needed flexibility with enough discipline to keep the focus of busy attorneys.
The most important elements for legal project management success is to align the right people, tools, processes and approaches to effectively deliver results. Unlike the traditional waterfall methodologies that often left my phone calls unanswered and meetings unattended by attorneys, agile project management is an iterative and incremental means of executing on a project. Requirements and solutions are allowed to evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams and the client.
Without a doubt, planning is very important. Planning under the guise of agile project management, is done iteratively, typically occurring from point-to-point or by phase. Agile encourages teams to begin the work as soon as the they know enough to start the work. Legal matters come in all shapes and sizes, and work often begins as a result of a time-sensitive client issue. Agile anticipates and embraces change. In fact, it is expected. These characteristics are precisely why Agile approaches can be so effective in the delivery of legal services.
Self-organizing teams, also a fundamental element of Agile project management, allow for flexibility in workload and ensures the right people are doing the work. It’s less about traditionally defined legal roles, but empowering the team to ensure they are working to their strengths to exceed client expectations.
Which brings us to the final, very important aspect of agile project management, worth noting for legal - the focus on continuous improvement. Agile calls it a retrospective. I say, call it whatever you want - lessons learned, post-mortem, etc… It does not matter what you call this conversation with the team, the idea is to generate ideas and strategies for the next phase, matter or sprint. It is the time to inspect the process and be flexible.
Agile project management for the delivery of legal services is not a magic bullet, but it’s an approach that keeps the lawyers lawyering and the project managers utilizing their strengths in aligning people, tools, processes and approaches.
Associated Blogs:
A Week of Agile LPM - Introduction
Day 1 - Reed Smith’s Commitment to Providing Agile Training and Certification
Day 2 - Baker Donelson, Improving matter profitability with Agile techniques