Before we start the discussion on who a consultant is, let's take an analogy. Though the analogy has nothing to do with Information Technology, it helps you to relate the point which we are trying to make.
For a moment, let's assume you are sick. The sickness is causing you a lot of discomfort. It is decreasing your efficiency and your ability to work effectively and doesn’t allow you to focus.
For obvious reason, you go to a doctor. You wait for your turn. When it is time, you enter the doctor's room, but you see that the doctor is impatient and looks in a hurry. You complain about your ailment (say, stomach pain) and lo and behold, the doctors writes a prescription, collects the fees, and you are out of the clinic feeling disappointed. You might take the medicine or rush to another doctor. You would agree that the experience was not pleasant.
Let’s take the same example, but say that instead of an impatient doctor, you come across a doctor who is calm, composed, and welcomes you with a smile. He makes sure you are comfortable. He starts asking you questions. You complain of stomach pain. He asks you detailed questions, such as:
- Is it the first time you are facing this or does it happen regularly?
- What time of the day does it bother you?
- Do you have any allergies to any specific foods?
- What did you eat in the last 24 hours?
Plus, more questions which help in correct diagnosis.
As he asks these questions, you feel comfortable and that you are in safe hands and with the right doctor. The doctor proceeds with examining you and checks your pulse and blood pressure. Only then does he prescribe medicine. The doctor shows genuine intent to make you well and asks you for a follow-up visit to ensure that you are fully fit again.
Did you note the contrast in the approaches?
This is exactly what happens in IT world. If we equate it to the doctor-patient analogy, we can say the patient is similar to a customer who has business challenges and is looking for a doctor, who is, in this case a consultant to overcome the challenges and provide the right solution.
Just like every patient is different with a different constitution, similarly every business is different. In fact, the situation varies drastically across different industry verticals and across geographies.
Moreover, in the real world the situation is more complex, as a consultant must deal with multiple teams in an organization and each team has its respective set of challenges and different expectations.
A consultant is a person whose approach is to understand the business challenges and find solutions to them.
A consultant is the one who does a lot of ground work before he/she starts working on a project. The consultant brings in the best practices during various stages of the project. (The details will be covered in subsequent chapters.) A consultant must the business of the customer, understand the process, and the way existing reporting/analytics are done.
A customer will always prefer a person who understands his concerns, thinks proactively, and gives suggestions. A consultant needs to play an important role in all the aspects of a project. The book will take you through each of these aspects and help you in your transition towards becoming a consultant. The various aspects are mentioned as follows:
- Preparation
- Getting ready with the prerequisites
- Requirement gathering
- Architecture
- Modeling
- Designing
- UI (User Interface)
- UAT (User Acceptance and Training)
- Go-live
- Post Go-live steps
Each of these steps is important in its own way and each of them will have its own challenges. The book will also cover a consultant's journey in each of these steps. We have tried to give examples to make it easy for you to relate to the points which we are making.