Key stages in project consulting

Project consulting has become popular in recent years, mostly thanks to the versatility of this service, and the high quality it can provide to each of the projects in which it is applied. However, providing a consultancy not only requires advanced knowledge of the topics used and applied within each of the projects, whether software, digital transformation or any other. It also requires knowledge how to apply the structure of a consultancy, which fulfills, like other processes, certain stages, all important and necessary to achieve the greatest possible impact.

Below, we will list some of the most important stages, a brief description, and why they are important when carrying out a consultancy, regardless of the project.

Establish terms and objectives

Extrapolating it, this stage is equivalent to identifying our "What" Something that may seem basic, and even intuitive, but is often overlooked, by not clearly giving boundaries to our terms and objectives.

A recurring error in some projects is seen when, almost deliberately, a consultancy is sought, without being very clear about what is expected from it. And as a consultant, it is also a mistake to start working without being clear about this.

If one or more components of a project are failing, but you are not very clear about which ones and why, this can be your objective: Identify and diagnose. On the other hand, if you have already identified what is going wrong, but have not found a way to fix it, this can be another objective. As you can see, a consultancy should have a specific objective, so that both you and your client can work more efficiently.

Proposal

Once we have established with our client the "What", we must present the "How", and that will be our proposal. Based on all the information we were able to collect from our client, through the questions we have formulated, we can formulate a proposal, remember that it should make clear aspects such as:

• The specific task or objective of the consultancy (Our "What").
• How long it will take us. Remember to be very conscious with the time, a long time could demotivate the client to perform the consultancy, and a very short time could be counterproductive in the quality of our work.
• The methodology to be used is based on the type of product the project will deliver and its characteristics. This can be an agile methodology in the style of SCRUM, a waterfall methodology in the style of those based on the PMBOK or a hybrid methodology that gathers the best of both worlds.
• Depending on the nature of the consultancy our client may require certain deliverables, these may pop up at some point in this process, or at the end of it; establishing dates, content and form of these deliverables should be a priority.
• A not minor issue, in which you must evaluate your level of expertise in the subject and the time the consultancy will take you.

Baseline

Before starting, and especially if your consultancy is focused on maximizing the performance of a certain area, the first thing you will do is to take a baseline. If you are not familiar with this term, what it means is to evaluate the situation as it is before starting the consultancy, so that at the end of the consultancy you will have a way to compare and analyze if the objectives were really met.

Measurement is very important, not only at the beginning and at the end, but throughout the entire consultancy.

Monitoring

Finally, we want to talk about monitoring everything that is done within the framework of your consultancy. As we have been telling you, measurements should not only be at the beginning and at the end of your consultancy.

Part of the success of your intervention will depend on having accurate data and knowing how to interpret them, in order to take actions that will lead your consultancy to the previously established objectives.