I am not the best consultants out there but I am learning since I have been one for just the past few months, and this post is to merely draw attention to some of the things which I have learnt as with my job till now,
Some observations.
1. There will always a gap between what the client wants and between what the developer thinks he has to deliver. Here is where the PM - Project Manager comes in. A PM's job is to be a bit of the client and a bit of the developer and a bit of ... well ... duuh a PM ! :-)) He has to be the one who realizes if a client's demands are ridiculous, and suggests the same to the client, in a much more polite manner ofcourse. In a similar manner, it is a PMs responsibility to convey to the developer that client's expectations are realistic. There can be many factors which can lead to a developer being non co-operative. Sometimes, a developer may realize that what the client wants is realistic and well within his reach, but, he may think that there is no real reason for the client to demand that feature / functionality. Therefore, it is the PMs duty to not just convey what a client wants, but more importantly, if the need maybe, *why* a client desires a particular functionality.
2. Sometimes a developer can have a really big ego and same goes for a client, and it is the PM's job to make sure that the job gets done, irrespective of the sizes of the egos of the people involved !
3. A consultant has to be a good listener. One important aspect of consulting is that pretty much every client is unique. Here uniqueness is defined in terms of: type of desired deliverables, cultural difference, organizational difference, legacy, type of business, type of technology preferred, nature of people involded, and last but not the least, the additional complications which are almost always there. More often than not, consultants are called in to take care of the uniquely special doo doo that a client is in. In such cases, previously existing solutions to problems do not exist by definition, and neither do industry wide best practices to solve such problems. Therefore, a consultant has to be willing enough to get close to the problem and realize it's unique nature.
More stuff will follow ! :-)
Some observations.
1. There will always a gap between what the client wants and between what the developer thinks he has to deliver. Here is where the PM - Project Manager comes in. A PM's job is to be a bit of the client and a bit of the developer and a bit of ... well ... duuh a PM ! :-)) He has to be the one who realizes if a client's demands are ridiculous, and suggests the same to the client, in a much more polite manner ofcourse. In a similar manner, it is a PMs responsibility to convey to the developer that client's expectations are realistic. There can be many factors which can lead to a developer being non co-operative. Sometimes, a developer may realize that what the client wants is realistic and well within his reach, but, he may think that there is no real reason for the client to demand that feature / functionality. Therefore, it is the PMs duty to not just convey what a client wants, but more importantly, if the need maybe, *why* a client desires a particular functionality.
2. Sometimes a developer can have a really big ego and same goes for a client, and it is the PM's job to make sure that the job gets done, irrespective of the sizes of the egos of the people involved !
3. A consultant has to be a good listener. One important aspect of consulting is that pretty much every client is unique. Here uniqueness is defined in terms of: type of desired deliverables, cultural difference, organizational difference, legacy, type of business, type of technology preferred, nature of people involded, and last but not the least, the additional complications which are almost always there. More often than not, consultants are called in to take care of the uniquely special doo doo that a client is in. In such cases, previously existing solutions to problems do not exist by definition, and neither do industry wide best practices to solve such problems. Therefore, a consultant has to be willing enough to get close to the problem and realize it's unique nature.
More stuff will follow ! :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment