publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/355985
ILTA WHITE PAPER: JULY 2014 38 THE AGILE LITIGATORS' MANIFESTO: BETTER, CHEAPER, FASTER KM in law firms and law departments is a bit like operations in a manufacturing plant: both focus on making the work more efficient. We have been borrowing ideas from operations in adapting things like project management, Six Sigma and Lean to our world. Legal project management has become a common business process improvement project in which KM professionals are often involved. Research by Lisa Gianakos published in ILTA's 2013 knowledge management white paper indicates that nearly 60 percent of those in KM are also involved in LPM. Project management started spreading in legal when the economy tanked and clients began asking for more predictability, transparency and control over their legal spending. Many legal project management methods today are based on traditional project management teachings (aka waterfall). These methods focus on planning the work to be done upfront, often in much detail, requiring a heavy investment of time before any legal work even begins. For example, determining not only the scope, but also the tasks to be performed, who will perform them and how long each task will take are typical for such planning. This works well for legal work that is predictable and repeatable, such as transactional work, but doesn't work as well for other types of work, such as litigation. The key problem with using only traditional PM methods is that in some areas of law, such as litigation, planning all work to be done upfront is impractical. Litigation by its very nature is unpredictable. You never know what your opponent will do, what facts you will learn from your client or what new legal precedent will allow you to make a brilliant argument that wins a motion. Understandably, litigators often throw up their hands and say project management is not for them. All is not lost. Agile project management offers a solution for litigators. An Agile approach values responding to change more than it values following a plan. Software developers in the 1990s were faced with this problem, which led to the creation of the scrum approach. Later their frustrations were voiced in the now infamous "Agile Manifesto," which today serves as the foundation for Agile project management. I think we need a Litigator's Manifesto. Agile software development methods can be applied to litigation rather naturally. Agile is a start-and-adjust model, not a plan-everything-in-advance model. Continuous communication results in an end product that is better aligned with the client requirements. Here are some additional characteristics of Agile project management that make it particularly well- suited for litigation: • Steps are iterative and incremental (think fact discovery) • Allows quick course correction when requirements change • Empowers project teams to work creatively and efficiently • Increases collaboration and transparency (both team and client) • Works well for service-oriented projects and non- physical deliverables Agile project management works well for KM projects, too.