This document discusses three different approaches an organization took to large projects based on whether they used consultants, a partnership with consultants, or handled projects internally. The first project, an Exchange migration, was fully outsourced due to specialized expertise needs, a hard deadline, and staff already at capacity. The second project involved both internal staff and consultants, with consultants providing specialized support, training, and flexibility due to high costs of delays. The third project, a website conversion, was handled internally due to staff expertise and no hard deadline, though it took longer and required fixing errors. The document evaluates advantages like staff development and flexibility, versus costs like time and opportunity costs.

1. Doing It On Your Own: When
to Call in the Consultants,
When to Leave Them Out
#12NTCDoing
Pam Kingpetcharat
Gabriel Nichols

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3.  Prepare: What you need to know before you
consider consultants
 Define: What you need to do to clearly set the
‘bar’ for service and performance
 Shop: Where to look for the right team
 Select: How to establish a system to
objectively weigh choices & estimate risk
 Manage: How to increase the probability of
success
 Evaluate: How to learn & build on each
engagement
Topics for discussion

4. Your Organization’s Consultants /
IS / IT Team Team of
Consultants
Context

5. • Current ongoing
Know your
workload
Organization’s
IS / IT Team • Larger expectations for
performance
• Each person’s
responsibilities,
capacities, capabilities
• Each person’s areas of
interest & desired
growth path
• Vision of IS / IT at
organization
Prepare

6. Clearly define: Statement of Work
• Problem being solved
(SoW) / Terms of
• Key questions remaining
Reference (ToR)
• Required expertise
• Preferred process for contract
• Expected deliverables
• Expected timeline & timing
penalties
Request:
• Recommended approach &
timeline
• Management plan & risk
analysis Use the process to
• Staff to be assigned explore & test solutions
• Cost quote
Define

7. Consider:
• Needs based on
‘define’ phase
Strategy / Implementers
Management / Integrators • Size of your
organization
relative to
Contractor
• Contractor
IT Service Independent
Providers Contractors specialization &
track record
• ‘Fit’ with your
organization
Shop

8. Considerations:
• Expertise in-house • Credibility / need for
(long/short term)? objectivity | politics?
• Comparative • Pros / Cons / Risks /
advantage? Cost / Timing
Evaluate by objective scoring:
Criteria Option 1 Option 2 Option 3
Recommendation
Experience & track record
Demonstration
Management plan
Consultative approach
Cost
Select

9. Standardized
project update
memo  Kick-off meeting
Completed this week, To be done
next week, Key issues to be
addressed (requiring client attention),
 Pre-scheduled check-in
Project risks
meetings on
deliverable due dates
 Regular weekly project
updates
Manage

10.  Final documentation
 Close out
presentation /
meeting
 Provide formal
feedback
 Ensure payment close
out
 Internal
documentation &
ongoing relationship
management
Evaluate

11. Leaving the Consultants Behind
Completing large scale projects without outside support

12.  What expertise does the project require?
1. Does your internal staff have/can the get that
expertise
2. Will you need that skillset moving forward for
additional projects/maintenance of the new
systems
3. Is this a growth opportunity for someone on
your staff?
Questions to Ask

13.  What is the deadline?
1. Is there a hard deadline by which completion
is required?
2. What costs, in budget, additional work, and
opportunities lost will slippage cost
3. Are internal stakeholders sufficiently
committed to the project to accept setbacks
Questions to Ask

14.  What resources do you have to devote to
this?
1. Your staff have full time jobs, can you devote
the time for training and work?
2. Be realistic. When an expert gives an
assessment of time expected for a project
you should add 50%, for internal staff triple
it.
Questions to Ask

15.  Exchange 2007 – 2010 migration
1. Fully outsources, staff managed
2. Clearly defined SOW with concrete
deliverables and specific timeline
3. Transition needed to be completed by set
date to fit in with larger infrastructure plans
4. One time task, expertise would not benefit
the organization moving forward
5. All staff were fully committed to other
projects. No ability to make space
Three projects, three approaches

16.  Network/Application Redesign
1. Partnership between internal and external
assets
2. SOW was flexible, project evolved as
conditions changed
3. Time slippage was expensive but original
systems could continue without error
4. Consultants provided planning support,
specialized expertise and training for staff on
continuing maintenance
Three projects, three approaches

17.  CMS Website conversion
1. Internal assets only
2. Staff included a web publisher expert in
HTML/CSS for template design and developer who
could do PHP coding
3. No set deadline, separated from a larger project
which had been too large to gain organizational
support
4. Website is dynamic with frequent changes both to
content and structure. Having the expertise to do
this internally has improved responsiveness and
flexibility.
5. Success in this step helped produce buy-in for
larger project which will be out-sourced
Three projects, three approaches

18. 1. Budget – there was none, this project served as
a proof of concept for further investment in the
website
2. Staff Development – during the project the web
publisher taught himself PHP and started learning
mySQL
3. Flexibility – because staff were completely
familiar with the structure and design of the site
they are better able to make changes going
forward
4. Greater Internal Understanding of Systems -
Discovery process for the project taught us about
strengths and weaknesses of the site we
otherwise would not have gained
Advantages

19. 1. Time – Project took 6 months from beginning to
rollout during which time we did not have the
benefit of the new system which a more
experienced firm could have deployed far more
quickly
2. Wasted Effort – four months in we realized that
we had made a key error in the design of our
templates and information infrastructure. While
this did not require starting from scratch it
required significant additional effort to fix.
3. Opportunity Costs – the time staff spent on this
project were not spent on other work.
Costs

20. Questions/
Discussion?