ILTA09: notes on project management

On Monday, August 24th, the first full day of the ILTA ’09 conference, The Posse List decided to be a fly on the wall at one of the educational tracks. We chose the Project Management Peer Group track and sat in on these four sessions: Maximize Project Success by Minimizing Risk; Project Management Executive Boot Camp; Calling All Stakeholders: Gathering the Right Requirements from the Right People; and Strategies for Successfully Managing Change. All of these sessions were held in a large room with space for 250 (attendees sitting around tables to be able to easily talk with each other), a wide stage with two huge screens to project presentations on them, and an area reserved for “clickers” – those people using laptops, netbooks, PDAs, etc.

Maximize Project Success by Minimizing Risk was an interactive session and sparsely attended with about 35 people (probably because it conflicted with a SharePoint 2007 session). There were three presenters, who addressed the entire group with background and examples of situations with risk, and how to weigh probability of risk versus its impact. Then they gave a scenario and broke the room up into thirds, each holding a hands-on mini-session discussing risk for that particular scenario and how to identify and then avoid, transfer, or minimize the risk. Then the results of each of the mini-groups were presented to the entire group for discussion. It was an interesting and effective way to maximize the involvement of the participants.

Project Management Executive Boot Camp had a host and a panel of four seasoned professionals who each gave a presentation. There were about 70 attendees, mostly non-lawyers, and after the presentations they engaged the panel in discussion. All in all, it presented useful tools for managing a project. The Posse List found the most interesting and novel one to be the “Information Radiator”, which is like an interactive bulletin board placed in a central location where all information on the project is posted and on which everyone involved can add their comments. It served as a central point for the team to walk past and even congregate, and addressed the principal reason that projects fail: lack of communication. However, the key takeaway from this session was that one size does not fit all – each project needs to be tailored to its own needs.

The Calling All Stakeholders session was also sparsely attended, again due to a possible conflict (Office 2007 deployment tools were featured in a session at the same time). There was a single presenter, and she did a top-notch job of keeping our attention and interest while she explained how to identify the stakeholders in a project and their relationship to the success of the project. Since only one-third of projects are deemed successful, this session seemed far more important than brushing up on Office 2007. The takeaway points were that you cannot ignore the stakeholders and succeed and how important it is to share information with everyone who is relevant to the project. Of course, this needs to be properly framed and put in the right language.

Strategies for Successfully Managing Change, was the last session we observed, and the most popular one. It followed the format of four speakers each presenting their views and then having a question and answer session, with contributions from the audience encouraged. The speakers discussed what is involved in change management, when a plan is needed, and the challenges to managing change. It was particularly noted how important it is to have resources properly allocated in advance and to agree up front when a project is done. There was a theme that attorneys are resistant to change and their adoption of change is a critical measure of success. Consequently, a lot of the discussion was how to win attorneys over and that it has to be done gradually. Sample comments: “Change is painful and they’re going to let you know.” “Adoption is hard – it invades their comfort zone!” Again, a key point was the importance of communication and collaboration.

Presentations of most of the presenters at ILTA are available as downloads through their website (information available by clicking here).  But scrolling through a powerpoint pack is not the same as being there, and The Posse List wanted to give you an idea of the various approaches to teaching used by the different sessions. These sessions, all being run and sponsored by a peer group of ILTA members, are probably less formal than most of the others, but also more effective.