Canadian Lawyer

40 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m In Part I of this series, published in the August Edition of Canadian Lawyer, we covered Kanban, a visualization and workflow tool commonly used in Agile project management. In Part II, published in September, we looked at the Scrum process for managing project teams involving short, focused meetings to keep members on track. In this final Part III, we will focus on the application of Lean to project management and how it can help develop a culture of continuous improvement. K anban and Scrum, being the core tools of Agile, are excellent at managing projects with ever changing priorities and timelines driven by client needs. But when it comes to improving the underlying processes used in executing those projects you must delve deeper into the specific tasks that constituted that work. Lean, a close relative to Agile, provides a powerful framework for doing just that. Under Lean, the goal is to identify and reduce waste and focus on the voice of the customer to speed up processes and maximize value. Waste can take many forms, but waste generally constitutes activities that do not progress a task towards Sponsored by completion and which your client or customer is not prepared to pay for. The different forms of waste are best remembered through the DOWNTIME acronym: By Paul Saunders An Agile Approach to Legal Project Management - Part III: Lean Waste Description Example Defects Errors and mistakes requiring re-work Circulating a draft document full of typos and incorrect cross- references Over Production Producing more than the client is willing to pay for Researching a 20 page memo when your client wants a quick one-paragraph answer Waiting Time spent waiting for work to be completed Re-familiarizing yourself with an issue you emailed someone else about weeks ago Non-utilized Talent When work isn't done at the appropriate or cost effective level A partner doing work that could be done just as well by a junior associate or paralegal Transportation Unnecessary movement of materials Relying on paper based filing systems where no one can find required documents Inventory Too much work in progress at any time Overloading one team member with tasks where others have capacity Motion Unnecessary movement of people Walking to a printer on the other side of the office 20+ times a day Extra Processing Over review of work that doesn't add value Having four people on your team review and approve the same document

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