ILTA White Papers

Project Management 2012

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Project Management Methodologies: One Size Does Not Fit All binary tradeoff — agile versus formal — but rather, what's the right fit for this project? Dona: My firm is fairly new to agile project management, but agility seems to suit projects for which requirements are not concretely known but get refined over a period of time. The danger here is primarily scope creep with no end in sight. On the other hand, more traditional waterfall methods run the risk of long up-front planning before actual project work begins. Delivering tangible, viable results as quickly as possible and with the highest degree of quality should be the drivers for either approach. Skip: With the agile approach, there's an increased probability of wasted effort, time and money, and lower-quality deliverables. That comes from the lack of formal project management steps, such as failure to identify all the stakeholders and the requirements that each stakeholder needs. With a formal approach, you could see the same issues of wasted effort, time and money. Examples might be too much paperwork and people waiting around for project change approvals. It's all about finding that right balance and monitoring progress. Mike: Let's break these down a bit. There are two primary methodologies for project management: "waterfall" and "agile." The waterfall methodology is basically broken down into five or six phases: requirements, design, coding, testing, maintenance, etc. The agile method is broken down into multiple "sprints," which are typically a month long with a review at the end of each sprint. The plus to the waterfall approach is you spend lots of time upfront defining exactly what you're going to build, and that cannot change. With the agile approach, you spend very little time upfront, and at the end of each month- long sprint — or applied in the legal world, at the end of each "task" or "phase" — you do a review and make adjustments as you move forward. In a formal, waterfall approach, you can't be reactive or deviate from the original plan. Most legal projects require change, so this approach doesn't work very well. With agile, if you don't perform the periodic reviews and keep track of the results, things can start to slip and get out of place. You need to have a warning system in place to let you know if this is happening. And if you don't do any upfront planning at all, you're not really defining your deliverable and you face the risk of unmet expectations. We've found that a kind of a hybrid of the two approaches works very well. You do work upfront to define what and how you're going to deliver, and then you do an agile approach through the life of the project. _______________________________________________________________ How do you find the right agile-to-formal balance for managing projects? Skip: The requirements of the project guide that balance, and every project is a little bit different. We take into account the project size, deadlines, resources needed, level of quality, firm culture, etc. to find the perfect equilibrium between agile and formal for each project. We also keep in mind that the project might need to be tweaked midstream to prevent problems. Mike: The best approach is to have a formal process in place for users who want to follow it and find it useful. There are certain areas of law that lend themselves to a structured approach more than others. Areas of law that don't lend themselves to a structured approach can still benefit from project management in an agile approach, using it as a kind of measurement tool rather than something enforced for doing day-to-day work. Matt: I rely on my gut. But it also depends on the stakeholders, the value and scope of the project, the time allotted for completion and the resources you have available. These points are taught in any good project management program, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to make project management a career. ILTA White Paper 9

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