Best Practice: “Tell It Like It IS” Consultants
Alan Wilensky’s comments on projectmanagement411.com are full of reality and, because he is a “tell it like it is” consultant, right to the point. His comment related to my June summary post (more specifically the “business epiphany: I wouldn’t have hired you” write up) bears repeating:
Alan: I always offer a 2 step contract in two billable partitions. The first is analysis, the second I implement the gory and unpleasant defunking.
Sometimes, the management I’m dealing with has to ‘cross the chasm’ after reading my analysis, and come to terms with the mess they have created, aided and abetted by some, frankly, unscrupulous IT vendors. Here’s a slice of life:
CIO: “We acknowledge and have read your analysis, and while it’s on the nose, I don’t see how we can take a wholesale alternate route at this point and terminate several of these programs. The investment is too great”.
ME: These people are screwing you, the end is nowhere in sight, and you are not even sure if you get to operational status, if any benchmarks will be met. There was no comparative cases or vendor cook-offs to see how these systems might compete. You let an IT enterprise sales team steer the project and nibble you to death on costs. It is time to step up and get a handle on this – if not with me, then YOU do it by starting now, pull the damn plug on this juggernaut.
I will always be available if you need guidance”
Silence
Silence
CIO: “Holy Moses……he’s right. This should have been stopped months and 300k ago.”
I am still waiting for the second call to initiate the re-engineering. I have high hopes, as they did not throw me out by my collar, and they paid me for my analysis.
PM411: Nothing like the truth to set you free. I guess you’re free- we’ll see if the client achieves this. I love the example- my experience is a bit different having been on the vendor side for most of my career. Since we already have many clients with our ERP system, we try to find out what the strategies of the company are and then position our solutions to drive key business processes that support the strategy (collaborative design, optimizing production lines, asset management). Problem is we are typically at the CIO level and they either don’t know the strategies and/or are unwilling to allow us to introduce the strategy mapping process to executives. As you know, typically there are very poor governance/PMO processes so this type of activity is sorely needed but clearly not recognized as valuable by most CIOs. Funny in that the strategy mapping almost always happens after execs do a “corporate visit” and hear about what we can do. Then they are asking the CIO “why didn’t you tell me about this?” Thanks for the stories and the great style that you tell them in.
A “tell it like it is” consultant like Alan is exactly what some companies need. Sadly, the companies that most need this type of advice are usually the most unwilling. It’s kind of like being a drug addict, you’ve got to hit bottom before you can admit you need help.
Are you close to hitting bottom? Could a consultant like Alan help you?
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Thanks for the shout out, Bob.
I was drawn to your writing due to your laser focus on strategy alignment of IT projects. Such a philosophy, if implemented faithfully, would make my specialty of downsizing and re-aligning mid-tier company IT projects less necessary.
I plan on writing a good length post on the tensions and dynamics that push and pull on these mid-range business ERP and CRM fiascoes.
In this economy, proper selection of the systems that run a business process is so important; throwing default solutions meant for leviathans at these mid-tier specialty and vertical businesses is just a recipe for disaster.
Luckily, if steered right at the outset, or caught before the VARs start raiding the hen house (IT budget), we can get the CIO or IT boss on track with an ever growing crop of excellent SAAS and platform services, or even some very simple weaves of common software that the client already has the licenses for!
Keep up the great evangelizing for sanity in the CIO’s mission.
Alan- a focus on the “tensions and dynamics” both internal and external would be fascinating. I’m reminded of advice I constantly gave to my three daughters growing up: be careful who you hang out with. Thanks Alan for your valuable contributions to PM411.