I like oatmeal. It has been around forever and I eat it a lot. Project managers have also been around forever. When they built the pyramids in Egypt or the Great Wall in China there was likely someone there who planned, directed, monitored and controlled the work. Although clearly the workers back then were not anything like the organized labor we have today, the fact is that someone envisioned, planned and created these magnificent structures. Someone had to anticipate completion of one part of the project before another. Who are these project managers and what do they do?
Although the definition varies depending upon where you read it, the Project Management Institute, which is the world’s leading professional association of project management professionals defines a project manager as “the person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives.” Clearly, the context in which the project manager works is significant, but in the end, a project manager, wherever he or she may work, is responsible for completion of the project work and is accountable to stakeholders.
Today, there are over 750,000 credentialed project managers across the globe and probably many more who do not hold a formal credential, but who are trained and/or educated in project management. Universities around the globe teach traditional project management, agile, lean and six sigma project management, and other incarnations of workflow and/or process management or improvement. And project managers work in nearly every major industry, from construction to finance, science, manufacturing, agribusiness, technology, and now legal.
The Rise of the Project Manager
The title project manager in the litigation support industry has become synonymous with individuals who on a daily basis orchestrate the use of technology in the practice law and assist lawyers with discovery and trial-related tasks within litigation and practice support departments and at service providers throughout the world. But how many of these project managers are managing projects in the way that certified project managers would? How many of them possess the talent, knowledge and skill sets required to effectively manage projects? How many possess formal project management training or the elusive PMP credential? Is their work defensible, or are we just flying by the seat of our pants?
In the past decade or so we’ve seen not just the formation and growth of an entirely new industry –the litigation and practice support field. We’ve even seen the rise of the first and only psychometric certification exam for the Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) from the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists. Along the way these somewhat amorphous titles that leaders in the industry may or may not like have arisen. One such title is the project manager. The truth is that what we’ve created is the accidental project manager. The accidental project manager is someone who, as opposed to having undergone formal education or training in project management, has learned by doing and grown into the role. The mechanics of project management – knowing how to initiate, plan, schedule, estimate and close—are not the only requirements of a project manager. Almost anyone can learn bottom-up estimating or scheduling – it’s basic math. And nearly anyone can sit in a planning meeting to scope out a project. Similarly, performing quality checks on data loaded to a database is not incredibly difficult work if you know what to look for. It is also not enough to just know industry best practices related to preservation, collection, processing, review and production. Ensuring the right tools are used to collect, copy or process electronically stored information, gathering metrics, preparing reports, directing technical staff or document reviewers—knowing how to and even performing these tasks are not going to help a so-so project manager blossom into a great project manager if the person is stubbornly rigid, lacks communication skills, strategic project-oriented vision, or possesses zero leadership qualities. Skills, we well know, can be taught. Experience can be gained over time if you have the tolerance for a few mistakes. But there’s a subtlety to project management that cannot really be taught. To a large extent it is an innate talent – an inherent trait that comes naturally. For some it is almost second nature.
What Are We Looking For in Project Managers?
We know great project managers when we see them, right? They are generally articulate, have a good command of the written word, and they exude confidence. Not too much confidence; but enough to make a first- or second-year comfortable with the task at hand. Great project managers have leadership abilities and a pleasant disposition. They are able to put things in perspective and quickly grasp context. They are decisive, they know what they don’t know, and they are able to marshal needed resources. They possess a lot of common sense. But equally important, they have general business, organizational and management skills, strong interpersonal skills and a pleasant demeanor. Depending of course upon their background, education and previous training, it may be too much to expect that the accidental project manager command all of these skills or that they develop them on the job. But it’s good to have a scope and a goal, right?
All of this begs the question: What are we looking for in a project manager? And, if they don’t have what we’re looking for, can we teach it to them? Additionally, for those thinking of dipping their toe into the project management or certified e-discovery specialist space, what can you do to prepare?
Clearly, the best project managers are already working as project managers, whether they have the credentials or not. Some of them don’t even realize they are project managers. But give them a little structure and some consistency in process, let them make a few mistakes, and soon enough you’ll have a project manager. This person may not need the formal project management education or the credential – though they may want it to document their qualifications. Even a highly educated and the most technologically or legally oriented person could fail as a project manager in our business if they are miscast in the role.
The best project managers in our business have extensive legal backgrounds. They have worked as paralegals, legal assistants or even attorneys. Having a legal background, understanding the court system, maintaining a case file, pleadings and correspondence, discovery materials, and working with attorneys to prosecute or defend a case in court and out, are all invaluable experiences that provide context for the work of a litigation support project manager.
Another rich source of project managers is IT departments throughout organizations that provide or require legal services. These folks usually have advanced technical skills, having worked at help desks, in desktop or application services, or even as systems engineers. Obviously, a litigation support project manager must have a strong technology background and they have to understand software, hardware and computer networks, storage and backup practices and, perhaps more than anything else, they need to understand how data is structured and manipulated and how databases work. They don’t need to be forensic experts, although it couldn’t hurt, but installing, learning, using, teaching and promoting software and the use of technology in general are essential.
And then there is experience. Experience is necessary too. Certainly, no one can have experienced all the things that can happen in a case, particularly one that involves multiple parties, large volumes of data from disparate sources, and the vagaries of litigation. The key to experience, though, is managing the process, stakeholder expectations, and responding to fluid situations. It is here that legal training and technology chops will help. No matter what issue arises in a case, a project manager needs to understand the rules, be nimble and smart, use experience to place the problem in context, and use available technology to resolve the issue. In the end, project managers are problem solvers and the ability to anticipate, analyze and resolve problems are what they do daily.
But that’s not all. Becoming a project manager requires a special blend of other skills or traits that, if they are taught or even capable of being taught, aren’t taught frequently and mostly cannot be practiced or learned. Successful project managers need to have courage, tact, confidence, and the temperament to deal with a wide array of people and personalities. They need to be analytical, methodical and decisive, but at the same time remain flexible and adaptive to the inevitable changes in scope and plan that accompanies each case. To be sure, project managers must be assertive, persuasive and dedicated, but they also must be outcome-oriented and possess sufficient leadership abilities to drive others –sometime superiors—to do the right thing and complete the project work. A project manager in litigation support must open-minded and communicative.
Conclusion
I don’t care much for instant oatmeal. It’s just two ingredients and always tastes watering to me. Nope. I buy the plain oatmeal in the tall, round container. I prefer to boil the water, add an equal amount of milk and a pinch of salt. Sometimes, I add cinnamon or raisins. I stir it and cook it a little and make it nice and stick-to-your-ribs thick. Once in a bowl, a teaspoon of sugar, a pat of butter and a splash of milk make it complete. It’s much more satisfying this way. Likewise, cultivating a project manager requires a lot more than just two ingredients.
