Law Technology

How Does a Case Get a Year Behind?

I’ve been reading The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick Brooks. Why would a lawyer be reading an essay on software engineering? Because it’s all about project management. Some of it is computer specific, but the vast bulk of the book is how to get a large group of talented people all going in the same direction.

I’ve noticed that even with smart, sharp, dedicated people it’s still difficult getting everyone on the same page. Frederick Brooks was in charge of building IBM’s System 36 and was behind on a project, so he threw more people at the project to knock it out. He found out that adding people to a late project just made the project even later. Ouch.

So he began studying the project. Looking at what worked and what didn’t work. There’s a lot of good stuff in this book and I’ll bring you a few nuggets at a time. First off?

How does a project get one year behind? One day at a time.

It’s hard to argue with that. The implication is that you have to constantly review your cases, looking at what needs to be done and making certain it gets done.

I have a number of cases with thorny issues that if I’m running and too busy, I’ll do a review and say “I need to do something about that”. Make the time, take the time to keep the cases moving, because the only way a case can get a year behind is one day at a time.

Full post as published by South Carolina Trial Law Blog on August 10, 2007 (boomark / email).