Over on the Lexblog, I’ve posted four brief fireside-chat videos (with a fifth coming tomorrow) describing briefly some key topics in Legal Project Management.
Almost all of it applies equally well to non-Legal project management (which isn’t the same thing as illegal project management). The topics are:
- The Stages of a Project simplifies an approach to project management specifically for knowledge-worker (non-technology) projects. It’s not applicable to projects where there is a significant requirements, adoption, or maintenance phase. It’s probably the only video of these five truly specific to Legal project management.
- Metrics and Measurement talks about input vs. output metrics and the evils of substitute metrics. The example is specific to legal work (or consulting), but the concepts and problems are the same everywhere.
- Delivering Value as the Output Metric — in particular for work billed hourly, but applicable to anyone delivering work. In business, focus on results, not the amount of work you did to achieve them.
- Checklists are a powerful addition to any project manager’s toolbox. This is a very brief introduction.
- Lean Six Sigma in Three Minutes (posted tomorrow, though the link may work now). Of course I can’t cover Lean Six Sigma in 180 seconds no matter how fast I may speak, but I do talk about two key aspects that you can implement without master black belts and the other mishegoss that unfortunately surrounds and obfuscates this field.
They’re true fireside chats, complete with fireplace (a/k/a wood-burning stove) and sweater. They’re mostly uncut first-take videos — just me having a conversation with project managers. A couple are two takes — for example, I scattered a bunch of golf balls I was trying to pick up as a prop — and one is actually outdoors, though I swear the fire was still burning merrily in the fireplace while I was catching the rays of a rare spring-in-January day up on the island north of here where I spend part of my time. (I later added a title card and a summary near the end.)
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Why does YouTube force posters to choose from three random stills within the video, none of which is the opening shot (often a title card)? For any video of a talking head, the odds are good that all three of these shots will catch the speaker with his mouth open, which simply looks goofy. I don’t mind looking goofy — in fact I relish it in the right circumstances — but I really would have preferred that the still picture shown in the YouTube window included the title card.
