Canadian Lawyer

development and law practice, isn't inherently visual. Progress often becomes buried in countless emails, status reports and overly complex tracking spreadsheets. It is dif- ficult to identify opportunities for improvement and to gauge progress when there is no single place where progress is tracked. Kanban makes this non-visual work visual. In its simplest form, Kanban relies on a physical or virtual whiteboard with three columns: To Do, Doing and Done. All tasks that make up the project are represented by cards on the board (often post-it notes). The title of each task, when it's due, who is responsible, and any other perti- nent details determined by the team are then written on each card. Cards progress from left to right on the board to track progress and coordi- nate work. The beauty of the approach is its flexibility. Rather than having to periodically overhaul detailed project plans and re-align tasks when inevi- table change occurs, team members can simply re-organize the cards on the board. The approach also better ensures clarity with respect to who is working on what, when, and creates accountability for results since mem- bers are expected to regularly report back on progress on the tasks they are assigned. It also shines a big light on bottlenecks, which can moti- vate teams to remove barriers that impede progress. An added benefit is that it avoids some of the awkward- ness of managing your manager, par- ticularly in a legal environment. Another critical aspect of Kan- ban is to limit inventory or work in progress. Capacity restrictions are sometimes placed on team members, where they can only be assigned a limited number of tasks or volumes of work so they can focus on com- pleting tasks rather being overbur- dened by multi-tasking. Kanban boards can also be highly customized by expanding the various columns for different purposes. For example, to coordinate a portfolio of related projects or matters, you may want to expand the Doing column to include different standard phases of work. In litigation these columns might include: File Intake, Pleadings, Production and Disclosure, Discov- eries, Pre-Trial, Trial, Appeal, Bill- ing and File Closure. In a corporate transaction matter the phases could be: Letter of Intent, Principal Agree- ment and Schedules, Conditions, Pre-Closing, Closing, Reporting, Undertakings, Billing and File Clo- sure. In this example, cards on the board all represent different matters, and progression of the cards from left to right track where each matter is currently located in the standard process. Checklists for each differ- ent phase can also be tracked, where team members may only progress their cards when all such items have been completed. Tracking a series of related matters in this manner can cause wasteful practices and bottle- necks to be quickly identified since cards tend group by those problem spots. Just like the underlying work itself, the tools used to manage that work must also be flexible. Since Kanban boards are so versatile, a team should start with an approach that makes sense at the outset. The goal should then be to learn from the experience, see what works and what doesn't work with the tool and incrementally evolve the approach over time based on feed- back from the team and to satisfy client needs. Kanban works best when it is combined with another Agile tool known as Scrum. Scrum provides a protocol for a series of meetings where team members report on the status of their work and move their cards on the board to reflect prog- ress. Part II of this III-part series will focus on the use of Scrum. "Rather than having to periodically overhaul detailed project plans and re-align tasks when inevitable change occurs, team members can simply re-organize the cards on the board."

• Cover