eDiscovery Daily Blog

eDiscovery Project Management: Tips for Creating Effective Procedures

Yesterday, we talked about why written procedures are important in eDiscovery and the types of procedures you should be writing.  Today I’m going to give you some tips for creating effective procedures.

First, let me say that writing procedures is easy.  In fact, it’s probably the easiest writing task you’ll ever do.  You don’t need to be creative.  You don’t need to develop an elegant writing style. In fact, the best procedures are simple and to the point.  All that’s required to write good procedures is knowledge of how to do the task and some guidelines.  Here are the guidelines:

  • When possible break a task down into its subcomponents and draft procedures for each sub-component.  It’s likely that different parts of a task may be handled by different people and done at different times.  Each component, therefore, should have its own set of procedures.  For example, your procedures for collecting responsive data may have components for notifying custodians, interviewing custodians, copying the data, maintaining records, and preparing and transporting media.
  • Use simple, clear language.  Keep sentences short and simple.  Use simple words.  If you are writing instructions to be used by attorneys, avoid using technical terms and acronyms with which they may not be familiar.
  • Make the procedures detailed.  Assume your reader doesn’t know anything about the task.
  • Make sure the steps are well organized and in the right order.
  • Format the procedures so that they are easy to read.  Use bullets, numbered points, and outline formats.  It’s much easier to follow instructions that are clearly laid out in steps than it is to follow procedures written in paragraphs.  This, incidentally, makes it easier to write procedures.  You don’t need to worry about the flow of sentences or paragraphs.  You just really need to put together a set of clear bullet points.
  • When possible, use illustrations:  If you are providing instructions for using a technology tool, include screenshots, and mark up those screen shots with annotations such as arrows and circles to emphasize the instructions.

It’s always a good idea to test your procedures before you apply them.  Ask someone who hasn’t done the task before to apply the procedures to a sample of the work.  Holes in the procedures will surface quickly.

So, what do you think?  Do you have any good tips for drafting procedures in eDiscovery?  Please share any comments you might have or tell us if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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