A general overview of the steps involved with BI Consultancy, though the majority of the content can be applied to managing general BI projects with new internal/external clients.

1. BI CONSULTANCY PROCESS
Created by Alasdair Thomson.
UNDERSTANDING PROCESS & EFFORT
BICP
Version 1.1

2. CONSULTANCY?
WHAT IS
“
”
An advisory service contracted for & provided to
businesses by specially trained and qualified persons
who assist, in an objecQve and independent manner,
the client business to idenQfy problems, recommend
soluQons to these problems, assist, when requested,
in the implementaQon of soluQons

3. AGENDA
PART 1 THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
An overview of the consultancy process, the
stages involved including the acQons &
expectaQons involved in each step.
PART 2 ENTRY
An overview of the steps & acQons required to
make a successful introducQon as well as the
creaQon & development of a relaQonship.
PART 3 DIAGNOSIS
An overview of the steps involved in diagnosing
the clients business needs & how these could be
overcome or addressed.
PART 4 INFLUENCING
An overview of the approach to influencing the
client & taking acQons to deliver the results, be it
a report or organising the changes to generate
revenue.
PART 5 CONTRACTING
An overview of the development process & key
expectaQons that should be observed by both the
client & consultant.
PART 6 TRANSITION
An overview of the transiQon phase along with the
client expectaQons of handover & support.

4. THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
ENTRY
DIAGNOSIS
INFLUENCING
CONTRACTING
TRANSITION
1 PART

5. THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
You need a clear & well defined as a plan, both for yourself and the client. This helps you to create & manage the client
relaQonship. These can be broken down into five broad stages…
Create & build a
relaQonship, scoping out
challenges & establish
possibiliQes, what it should
aim to achieve, the likely
Qme and effort required,
and possible risks and
difficulQes.
ENTRY
Gathering informaQon,
understanding the people
& the business to develop
ideas to arrive at possible
opQons & define a plan of
acQon
DIAGNOSIS
Recommending acQons &
soluQons to address
business needs or
challenges. How we can
deliver deliver results, be it
a single or series of
output, or business
changes.
INFLUENCING
Where the business &
consultant agrees the
work required, the
consultant's role, the
client's role and how the
work should be tackled
CONTRACTING
Ensuring successful
implementaQon, that the
client business can carry
on without you. Leaving
the ground clear for future
involvement & work.
TRANSITION

6. 2 PART
THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
ENTRY
DIAGNOSIS
INFLUENCING
CONTRACTING
TRANSITION

7. Research the client & their
business, IdenQfy key
people & the decision
makers and tailor your
approach to suit the
situaQon.
Clients are busy, their
Qme is short. Be clear &
concise in what you say,
highlight previous
successes & saQsfied
clients.
Plan ahead quesQons you
want to ask the client &
select quesQons that will
add to your knowledge &
sQmulate the clients
interest.
Build relaQonships slowly
& use exisQng successes
to help listen carefully &
be open to challenge
boundaries; of what could
be.
ESTABLISHING NEW CLIENTS
TAP INTO YOUR
NETWORK
ASK INTELLIGENT
QUESTIONS
VALIDATE YOUR
DISCUSSION
DO YOUR
HOMEWORK

8. THOUSAND WORDS
PICTURES PAINT A
DEMONSTRATE
DemonstraQng services & experQse you offer is crucial, enabling
the client to understand & visualise your Unique Selling
ProposiQon. This sQmulates interest & will help clients visualise
what “could be” whilst allowing you to provide proof of the
possibiliQes & combaQng any iniQal objecQons or concerns.
INSTIGATE
PotenQal clients may see the need for your service but are oben
wary about spending a substanQal amount on spec. Overcome
this objecQon by offering a starter service. For example, offering
a one-day “Rent My Brain” strategy session, which provides
potenQal clients a way to test-drive our experQse & services for a
nominal fee; while geeng a great deal of real value.

9. OUTLINE OF STEPS TO ESTABLISH RAPPORT, BUILD ON TRUST & ADDRESS CLIENT CONCERNS
ENRTY & CONTRACTING MEETING
DEFINE & REASON
DefiniQon of the business
problems & clients reasons why
problem needs to be addressed.
** Watch for hidden agendas **
ESTABLISH CRITERIA
Criteria that any outcome must
saQsfy, what is the desired state
the client is aiming for & why.
SET BOUNDARIES
Limits of client authority/power
& Clients expectaQons of you.
The role client expect you to
fulfill? i.e. consultant/surrogate
manager.
OUTLINE CONTEXT
Level of support you require from
client, extent of confidenQality,
resource constraints, deadlines,
budgets, access to stakeholders.

10. THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
ENTRY
DIAGNOSIS
INFLUENCING
CONTRACTING
TRANSITION
3 PART

11. DIAGNOSIS ‘You can overcome poor
planning; you can overcome poor
coding. But nobody has ever
succeeded with poor
requirements.”
D
To get what you want, you must accurately define it,
good business requirements analysis helps achieve
this objecQve.
It leads you to bejer understanding of the business
needs & helps break them down into detailed,
specific requirements that everyone agrees on.

12. IDENTIFY KEY STAKEHOLDERS
IdenQfy the key people who will be affected by the project.
Start by clarifying exactly who the project's sponsor is. This
may be an internal or external client. Either way, it is
essenQal that you know who has the final say on what will
be included in the project's scope, and what won't.
1
IDENTIFY END-USERS
STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
2
STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS
Ask each of these key stakeholders, or groups of
stakeholders, for their requirements from the new product
or service. What do they want and expect from this project?
JOINT INTERVIEWS OR FOCUS GROUPS
“USE CASES”
BUILD PROTOTYPES

13. CATEGORISE REQUIREMENTS
Group the requirements into one of four categories:
FuncMonal - How a product/service/soluQon should funcQon
from the end-user's perspecQve.
OperaMonal - OperaQons that must be carried out in the
background to keep the product or process funcQoning over
a period of Qme.
Technical - Technical issues to be considered to successfully
implement the process or create the product.
TransiMonal - Steps needed to implement the new product or
process smoothly.
3
IMPACT ANALYSIS
SCENARIO ANALYSIS
4
INTERPRET & RECORD REQUIREMENTS
Once you have gathered and categorised all of the
requirements, determine which requirements are
achievable, and how the system or product can deliver them.

14. Once you complete your analysis a wrijen document must be created. This
becomes the "contract" for creaQng the product or system that addresses all the
needs of your client & their business.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
WRITE TITLE HERE
5
CLIENT SIGNOFF ON REQUIREMENTS
Finally, make sure you get the signed agreement of key
stakeholders, or representaQves of key stakeholder
groups, confirming the requirements precisely reflect
their needs. This formal commitment will play an
important part in ensuring that the project does not
suffer from scope creep later on.

15. THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
ENTRY
DIAGNOSIS
INFLUENCING
CONTRACTING
TRANSITION
4 PART

16. INFLUENCING CLIENTS
OBJECTIVES
Consultants use a broad range of skills &
acQviQes to influence but chief amongst
them is the ability to build trust, demonstrate
experQse & provide informaQon & soluQons
to any given situaQon.
As part of the consulQng process, when going
through the influencing stage, there are eight
fundamental objecQves, arranged
hierarchically.
Provide Requested InformaQon
Provide SoluQon to Given Problem
Conduct Diagnosis that may Re-define Problem
Provide RecommendaQons
Assist ImplementaQon
Build Consensus & Commitment
Facilitate Client Learning
Improve Client Business EffecQveness
ADDITIONAL GOALS TRADITIONAL GOALS

17. QUICK STEPS TO INFLUENCE CLIENTS
02
ENCOURAGE EMOTIONS
Listen & act on client feedback, aim to create “moments of
truth”, you need the honest & open discussions to
sQmulate ideas & obtain client buy-in.
03
STAY NIMBLE & BE BOLD
The “learn” in “test & learn” means discarding what isn’t
working while devising new, more effecQve methods while
making what IS working even bejer.
01
PAINT A HOLISTIC PICTURE
Supplement data analyQcs with human interacQon,
including direct client feedback, to create a more complete
portrait of your client.

18. THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
ENTRY
DIAGNOSIS
INFLUENCING
CONTRACTING
TRANSITION
5 PART

19. CONSULTANTS
FUNDAMENTALS OF
DELIVERING PROJECTS
In consultancy work it is crucial that the consultants are all capable of
designing & delivering projects to client requirements, the agreed budget
& milestone dates, lest it impacts project financials or client trust.
DEALING WITH PEOPLE
If managing relaQonships is the key to success in consulQng, then it is the
behavior and interpersonal skills of the consultant that make that
happen. All really skilled consultants have excellent interpersonal skills.
WORKING WITH CLIENTS
Empathy & understanding of the clients world, the business operaQon,
the pressures they face & the dependency on the consultants efforts. To
that end constant & clear client communicaQon is crucial.

20. THE DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE
PROTOTYPING
CreaQng a rudimentary
working model which is
reworked unQl an acceptable
prototype is finally achieved.
CONCEPT & DISCOVERY
In the Discovery stage the
consultant considers
technology, data &the
applicaQon layers.
DESIGNING
The sourcing of data &
creaQon of the data models,
reports & dashboards.
TESTING
Ensuring accurate data
models, ETL, front-end
objects, user access & output
generaQng processes.
UPLOAD & RELEASE
AcQve client handover of
newly created service or
objects, includes training &
acceptance.
ITERATIONS (AGILE)
MAINTENANCE
Handover of processes,
documentaQon to support
teams & integraQon into
BAU processes.
CODING
The formal integraQon of
new data or data models &
addiQon of advanced
calculaQons & metrics

21. AGILE DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE
Agile development is a group of development methods in which soluQons evolve through collaboraQon between self-
organising, cross-funcQonal teams. It promotes adapQve planning, evoluQonary development, early delivery, conQnuous
improvement, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change.
DAILY SCRUM
MEETINGS
NO CHANGES IN DURATION OF SPRINT
SPRINT BACKLOG
OUTPUT INCREMENT
CLIENT INCREMENTAL
REFINEMENT
DEVELOPMENT
TEAM
SCRUM MASTER

22. THE CONSULTANCY PROCESS
ENTRY
DIAGNOSIS
INFLUENCING
CONTRACTING
TRANSITION
6 PART

23. AIMED AT MEASURING THE RESULT OF THE WORK IN TERMS OF LEARNING & BUSINESS BENEFIT, LOOKING TO
DISENGAGE FROM THE CLIENT RETAINING GOODWILL.
TRANSITION & WITHDRAWAL
GENERAL EVALUATION
To decide what & when to
evaluate; client relationship,
project work or business benefit.
CLIENT HANDOVER
To produce any supporting
documentation, data dictionaries
& provide end-user training.
SUPPORT & MAINTENANCE
To agree with the client the
support expectations & over what
length of period; including costs.
NEW OPPOTUNITIES
Look to generate new revenue
opportunities with the client,
expanding upon the relationship.

24. C O N T A C T M E
ALASDAIR THOMSON
11 Newhall Road
Kirk Sandell
Doncaster
South Yorkshire
DN3 1QQ
BeyondBIAnalyQcs@gmail.com
E-MAIL
+44 7540 955731
Alasdair Thomson
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