Preparing for the Project

In the previous chapter, we talked about defining a consultant. We also looked at why consultants are valued and what a client expects from a consultant.

This chapter is about the importance of preparing for a project. Before starting, let me put before you some powerful quotes:

A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.
-Confucius

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
-Benjamin Franklin

Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us.
-Richard I. Winwood

These quotes may have been made several years ago, but they still hold true. A very critical aspect of the project, often neglected, is the preparatory phase. This is the phase where a consultant should invest a good amount of his/her time.

In our childhood, we heard about the story of...

Knowing about the company

An important step in preparation is spending time understanding your customer better. Unless this happens, you will be delivering a standard project and nothing more.

You can acquire some measure of knowledge from various research techniques, but nothing beats living, breathing, and feeling the same things your prospect (customers) do.
-John Jantsch

Every company has a different way of functioning. Since businesses are extremely dynamic; lots of companies keep adapting themselves. A consultant must be aware of how a particular industry functions.

Let’s take an example. If your client is from an insurance industry, it's important to know how the insurance industry is performing and what direction it is taking. Are there any announcements which are going to change the dynamics? Is there any new government order in pipeline that may alter the...

Understanding the existing landscape

One of the important aspects a consultant must look at is about the existing landscape. When we say landscape, it essentially means understanding how the client is managing analytics currently. It also means understanding the existing datasources and the existing BI tools. It also means understanding why the company is looking at changing their software. Let us look at each of these.

Existing data sources

Knowing the existing data sources helps you to plan better. It is good to know all the data points. It does matter if the systems are known software or are custom built. Known software are easier to tackle, but custom or legacy applications can pose lot of challenges. For known software...

Understanding organizational hierarchy

We briefly covered this in the Chapter 1, Consultant - An Introduction. Let’s look at why this can be a make or break situation for a consultant. A consultant needs to work with several functions in an organization. Every organization will have a hierarchy for each of these functions. A hierarchy is a structure in an organization where each level has a different role and responsibility. The hierarchy often reflects the different decision-making structures. The following is an example of the Sales hierarchy for a Multi-National Company (MNC):

Sales hierarchy for a MNC

If we look at preceding figure, it shows the Sales hierarchy for a large MNC. Though self-explanatory, we will try to cover in brief the different people involved. The structure is partial as it only covers America. The others, Europe and Asia, will also have similar...

What you need to study and prepare

The basic and crucial factor you need for preparation is the study of the website of your client. These days, the websites are very detailed and a lot of messaging is conveyed by them.

Studying a website helps you understand the nature of the business, the products/services the client sells, and the geographies in which it is present. Go through all the sections of the website in detail. The vision and mission statements will give you an idea of what the company is wanting to be. Make notes, and this will help you ask relevant questions in the requirement gathering phase.

The first step in exceeding your customer's expectations is to know those expectations.
- Roy H. Williams

Look at the preceding quote. How can you achieve this? Preparation is the key again. As you go through the website, look at the management team. Go through the profile...

Identifying your champion

Another crucial link for a consultant is to identify a project champion. A project champion is someone from the customer organization. Let's look at what a project champion does in a BI project:

• Gives you an overview
• Helps you in understanding organizational hierarchy
• Helps you to identify organizational goals and objectives
• Helps you to identify and meet key people
• Helps you in defining KPI and helps in getting sign-offs
• Helps to set the right expectations in the project
• Helps you to understand the business challenges
• Helps you to identify factors driving business adoption
• Helps you to define success factors
• Helps in the UAT phase
• Drives the BI initiative after the consultant's role is over

As you can see, a project champion plays a critical role. For a project champion, rolling out the BI solution could be the most important factor, and...

Summary

This chapter focused on the importance of preparing for the project and explained the reasons why preparation is extremely important for a consultant before he/she starts actual work.

The chapter also covered what kinds of preparations a consultant must undertake. It's good for a consultant to know about the company, how it operates, and its goals and objectives.

We also looked at how a consultant should understand the different types of business users and the roles they play. The other aspects we looked at are important for a consultant in terms of understanding the data sources and various tools the client uses. The chapter also focused on what challenges the companies usually face, and lastly, the importance of a project champion and why it's important to work closely with him/her.

In the next chapter, we will look at the prerequisites before a consultant...