Lawyers in the 21st century, are no longer limited to court galleries, nor their acumen and approaches to real-life problems affected by digital technologies can be traditional. Today’s lawyers must act like consistent conflict managers, who would use their clarity of first principles in legal theory to provide real-time, stage-conscious, risk-sensitive solutions. A theory of law and economics, differing from the decades’ old Keynesian and Newtonian economic thought models, now calls for complex adaptivity in lawyering. In fact, when legacy institutions become either dysfunctional or overburdened, lawyering solutions to address legal problems related to digital products and services, would surely go beyond the usual ways of addressing liability and rule of law concerns. Even auditing and compliance, as simplified or complicated it may seem, shapes the regulatory approaches of governments and enables mobility in solving problems.
In my previous articles, I have covered the concept of soft law in detail, in which I have discussed how understanding legal concepts and principles is not limited to the general sources of law. There are certain exhorting sources and means of understanding law, which indeed do not establish themselves to be, what we call as hard law.
If we try to solidify those understandings and sources in the applied form, then those sources and means do not remain as soft law at all. It is necessary to recognise tools to mobilise legal solutions as the means and not the end. Following this principle, in this article, I will explain about agile management in law, and will cover how can we use this as a tool or a means to enhance lawyering in law & digital technologies.
What is Agile Management/Methodology?
In 2001, a group of individuals authored the Principles of Agile Methodology in which they proposed much modernised means of software development. The 12 principles are quite simple, described as follows:
Deliver customer satisfaction by delivering valuable software continuously
Always accept change of requirements matter how early or late in the project
Deliver software that works within a shorter timescale
Both developers and business professionals must work closely together daily throughout the project
Information is best transferred between parties in face-to-face conversations
Motivate people to build a project by creating an environment of appreciation, trust, and empowerment
Working software is the key measure of progress
The agile process promotes sustainable development
Continuous attention to excellence and quality in technical development and design boosts the agility