by Matthew Lane, PMP, Ph.D.; Director of Client Services, Fios, Inc.
The emerging energy around project management in electronic discovery is exciting to witness. The numerous blogs, articles, and presentations on project management are beginning to illustrate how to introduce project management into electronic discovery. Those of us championing project management are eager to encourage the use of tools and techniques we feel will add value to our clients. Finding the right pace of introduction is important as is understanding that the pace of adoption will be different for each individual and firm. Pushing project management information too quickly may result in rejection from overload. Move too slowly and the project management seedling may wilt from lack of care and feeding.
I’ve recently written a white paper entitled “Reducing Chaos in Electronic Discovery Projects”. The paper is aimed at paralegals and litigation support managers who lead projects but are somewhat new to formal project management concepts. I chose to limit the paper to 5 concepts (communication, scope, requirements, schedule and triple constraint) that can be utilized to bring structure and control to the chaotic environment of e-discovery projects. Clearly, there is much more beyond these 5 initial concepts. The white paper objective is to introduce project management to litigation teams at the proper pace to bring immediate value and encourage further exploration. Not every paralegal or litigation support professional will follow the path toward PMP certification and a career as a project manager. But, combining strong legal skills with a dash of project management knowledge may help smooth out the project bumps a bit. I would love to hear feedback from those who read the white paper.
Filed under Discerning e-Discovery, Home Page Featured.