Blog - Page 70 of 127

Working with an IT Consulting Firm-Being a Good Customer

Good-Customer What makes a good customer? Isn’t it the job of a consultant to make the relationship work? Like all positive relationships, it’s a two-way street. Here are a few thoughts on being a good customer.

Be Flexible

It’s no secret it’s a tight market for talent. If you’re looking at the credentials of the team members down to the minor revision-level, you may lose out. For example, if there’s not a 100% fit to your technology set like a JavaScript library, have the team members used similar or competing frameworks?

Be Quick

Setup your process for interviewing a consulting firm or consultant to be thorough but quick to commit if you’ve found a fit. Top talent is rarely sitting on the sidelines for long.

Be Effective

Communicate expectations
Remove roadblocks and political boundaries
Be active and engaged in the process and project
Communicate
Pay according to the terms

Working with an IT Consulting Firm-Being Agile

Agile Cat We use Agile to keep projects on track. Why Agile?

Agile focuses on frequent deliverables. It results in higher user visibility and input on what’s done and what’s next. Agile is the opposite of “waterfall”—where the requirements are hammered out and customers wait for months, or years, to see results.

For consistency across projects, our use of Agile is supported by proven tools and processes.

Along with making software for our customers using Agile, we teach organizations on Agile, Scrum, and offer courses for professionals to become Certified Scrum Masters (CSM).

Next time: Leaving the Client Better Off

Working with an IT Consulting Firm-Starting Before the Start

Leading-Trump We coach our consultants on adapting to change and challenges. As a result, customers are surprised by how fast our team understands their business, technology pros and cons, and challenges.

So, how do we do it?

Prior to an engagement, our crew:

Spins up early. The team researches the customer to understand their services, value proposition, competitors, and industry trends and transformations.
Uses the Intertech team. We’ve got a solid team with lots of enterprise experience in different industries. The domain may be new to an individual consultant but rarely to the Intertech crew at large.
Are active listeners. They talk with non-tech folks in the business domain to get a deeper dive on the business as a business.

Next up: Agile and Scrum

Let’s put cynicism aside and embrace our philanthropic obligation

Mother-Teresa-Holding-Child Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement that he’s donating 99 percent of his Facebook stock to a new philanthropic organization is welcome news.

Based on this, I wrote an article for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Click here to read Let’s put cynicism aside and embrace our philanthropic obligation.

Working with an IT Consulting Firm-Starting Strong

When starting a consulting engagement, clear expectations, lines of responsibility, and a transparent communication plan increase the odds of success.

The “blocking and tackling” questions for both sides include:

What are the business needs driving this project?
What’s the timeframe?
Who will help on the project on both sides of the project (i.e., skills and experience)?
What other solutions have worked or failed in the past?
If the project is in-flight, what’s the current status?

Beyond the above, a solid consulting firm delivers results which add up to more than the initial requests. Without being self-serving, I’ve noticed when we finish a project the client ends up with improved testing plans, a better approaches to Agile, or automated deployment and testing environments (none of which were in-scope at the start but the result of working with a seasoned consulting team).