How to "Think" Case Management

There is a saying: garbage in ... garbage out. In database lingo, if you build a system with hundreds of fields for intake of case information, the users will rebel. And you will find that you are worse off than before. Some users will judiciously fill in the case management profiles, but many others will not. The result will be "bad data" ... the inability to actually get a report across all your cases based on the information in the case management profile.

So ... to THINK Case Management

In planning a Case Management system, ideas must be tempered by hard reality. Every field you change will be used hundreds or thousands of times. This means, the fields must be carefully laid out in a logical format. Related information must be grouped together. Good design makes use of drop-down lists to help the user enter a consistent answer that will produce valid aggregate data. And it also means "less is more".

In a Case Management system like Time Matters, the initial focus should be to get the information entered in memo fields (free form) and then properly profiled. To do this, extensive use of classification codes that have real meaning is the best place to start. From there, you can branch out. Some legal practice areas have specific data that is required in multiple form documents or that may be useful for negotiations or planning purposes. If these items need to be reviewed on an aggregate basis, build them into the custom form. On the other hand, if these items need only to be used for a single document, which, once created, is never needed again, put them into a memo field, anecdotal style.

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Silly Simple

This is a system that real people use everyday. Count each second that it takes to get the process flowing. What can be reasonably expected from someone answering a potential client inquiry. Are you going to do a "social service worker" style intake that requires a 30 minute interview just to get someone's name in the database? Or, are you going to get the essentials, and let the file build over time. Where do you want to take this system? Plan it out with K.I.S.S. Test it out on the users. You will find they have an opinion ... Boy, do they have opinions, opinions that you had better listen to.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

It is very easy to build complex systems - you just start. Every time you think of an idea, you add to it. In time, the system grows beyond the original creator's ability to grasp the whole system and maintain it. And then, well .. you know the story, strange things start happening. The solution is to build modular, test, and then grow. Solve the small problems. Don't try to engineer triggers for an entire case; take each element, one step at a time and automate it. Triggers, chains, and autoentry forms in Time Matters form the building blocks of a sophisticated workflow system. Since there is no wizard for visually laying out a workflow process in Time Matters, it is recommended that you use a tool like Mind Manager to plan out your flow and the steps to reach it.