Ops for Law

Project management is a collection of tools and processes for the management of “projects.” The word “project” has a very general colloquial meaning – it just means something that needs to be done. What is a “project” in the sense used in management science?​

Work is managed by different methods based mainly upon the novelty to the producer. Novelty can be imagined on a spectrum, with complete lack of novelty at the left, complete novelty at the right, and a gradient between.​

At the left end with the least novelty is volume production, in which a set group of people execute a set series of processes to produce a consistent output. For example, manufacturing ball bearings brings little novelty; the only variability is that intrinsic in the raw materials (such as their metallic composition) and in the operation of processing machines (such as tolerances, temperatures, and state of wear). The main management challenge of volume production is to manage cost, which is expected to be low relative to the production undertaken at lower volumes. In operations terms, the work involved in volume production is “routine work.”​

At the right end of the management spectrum with the greatest novelty are “projects.” In management terms, a “project” is a task that is so novel that one of the main management challenges is to address the novelty. The classic example of a “project” involves a task done only once, and so novel that it is uncertain as to what is to be done, who is going to do it, how long it will take, and what it will cost. Designing and constructing a unique office building is a project in this sense.​

We note four points in thinking of work as routine or as a project.​

First, work that is routine in the management sense (and hence not a project) may be complex and may involve uncertainty. Heart transplantation is routine work in the management sense; a fixed team executes known procedures. The condition of an individual patient is incalculably variable, but the team is trained to address these variations. The same people execute the same (complex) procedures in a known sequence over a reasonably predictable time and at a reasonably estimable cost. While unexpected things will happen that may make the procedure for a given patient far from “routine,” the management challenges are nonetheless those of routine work (rather than project work). Some would refer to treatment of an individual heart patient as a “case,” denoting routine work that by its nature may still follow a unique course. The substantive complexity and uncertain course of legal work do not in themselves make legal work a project in the management sense.​

Second, the classification of work is relative; routine work for one producer may be totally novel (and hence a project) for another. If one not in the business of making ball bearings is asked to make one ball bearing, that producer must undertake a project to make the ball bearing. Who will do what when and at what price to make this ball bearing? These unknowns must become known and then implemented. Making the first ball bearing is a project for management purposes. Once a ball bearing plant is created, its ongoing operation will become routine work.​

Third, most any project will embed routine work. In building a house, project management methods are used to scope, price, and schedule the electrical work for this unique project. But for the electrician who arrives to wire the kitchen, the work is routine. Project management does not inform the electrician how to best do the specified work; this function is left to other disciplines used to manage and improve routine work. Project management organizes resources to a task; for legal work, it is about who will accomplish what when and at what cost for this novel task. It is not about how the work will be done. How the necessary routine work is done is a general operations and process improvement question. Project management may estimate the cost and timing of a deposition; project management is not about how to take a deposition well.​

Fourth, some work will fall in the middle zone of the novelty spectrum and hence be open as to whether it is regarded as a “project” or “routine.” Sometimes work that is fairly routine but which needs cost and schedule tracking can benefit from project management techniques (drawing in these more routine tasks is called “management by project”). Don’t be put off by the nomenclature, but master the point that the goal of project management is to address the novelty of an effort.