13.6 Managing an IT consulting project

Objectives and deliverables will have been discussed during the process of tendering for the consultancy work. However, before the consultant starts work in earnest, the client and the consulting team should set aside time to meet and clarify the objectives further. Investment of personal time will be amply repaid later in the project. Objectives often contain conflicts, for instance between cost and flexibility or between the demands of different users. Many ill-defined objectives have resulted from an attempt to hide these conflicts rather than facing up to them at the outset. If the objectives change as the assignment proceeds, then go back to reclarify and replan.

Plan to have an explicit time buffer between the completion of the consultancy work and the first critical deliverable such as a “go-live” date. All projects need contingency time for unexpected events but client and consultant often feel embarrassed about this “padding” and implicitly conspire to hide the safety time by accepting overestimated times on every single task in the project. Neither the client nor the consultant can manage safety time that is hidden within the tasks, and it is in the wrong place: it should be at the end of the project. Overestimating on each task gives a false illusion of safety to those whose duty it is to deliver the task – an illusion that is often rudely shattered when a critical bug is found the day before the go-live deadline. Risky projects need a longer time buffer, typically up to a third of the overall time available. This way of working requires a different approach by all concerned: more honesty in estimating task times, constant monitoring of the project buffer and immediate action if the safety time begins to be eaten away at a faster rate than the project is progressing.7

There should be one person who acts as the client for the project and, if it is a significant project, a top-level manager should act as a sponsor. For large multifaceted projects, the sponsor will need to assemble and chair a steering committee with the brief of ensuring that all stakeholder needs are met.

Clients should think hard about whether they have the time to manage the consultants. It is possible to employ someone – another consultant perhaps – who is not connected with the main consulting contractor to manage the consultants.

Client and consultant should also plan for the time of the specialized people within both organizations who will need to work together. If the consultants cannot deliver a key specialist such as a database designer at the right time, then the whole project will be delayed. On the other hand, if the consultants cannot gain access to the people they need to talk to, such as specialists, senior managers or end-users in the client organization, then they will have a legitimate reason for late delivery.

Client and consultant should work together to develop a stakeholder analysis and keep it up to date. Think of everyone who could be affected by the project and map them according to the degree to which they are affected. Manage all these relationships according to their importance and review the status and importance of the relationship with each stakeholder periodically as the project progresses.