When and how should Emirry Partners' expertise be retained?
When should an Emirry Partner be brought on board? Contract award is often a good time. This is a chaotic period when the project management foundation has to be established, resources must be hired and trained, schedule and cost baselines developed, processes established and procedures tuned. Customer reviews such as IBR and PDR are other good times to bring in Emirry’s expertise. Often a crunch time for the project, when everything and everyone must be in order to pass the customer’s muster and gain approval in order to move on to the next phase of the program. Rebaselining is yet another excellent time to bring in a consultant. This situation occurs when the schedule is replanned and baselined to address execution variances to the original schedule baseline and failed expectations of the client. Extraordinary situations also justify an Emirry consulting resource. When circumstances are identified as being outside of the normal operation and the knowledge level of an organization, Emirry expertise can be brought in to address the situation in a strategy to manage the work effort until the extraordinary requirement need has passed. This might be managing a project that is much larger in size or scope than normally handled by the organization.
The first step in preparing to bring in an Emirry consultant is to define the work to be performed (SOW), clearly articulate the role, actions and deliverables needed from the Emirry Partners consultant. The timeframe for performance and the measurement that will be used to guage the Emirry consultant’s performance should also be included in the SOW. Sometimes the SOW and deliverables need to be refined with the consultant before work begins, this is a normal progression of defining the scope of work and goals. The Emirry consultant has the responsibility to provide feedback on the statement of work before it is accepted, in order to refine the execution plan and leverage for the best advantage of executing a successful project.
Lacking a clear understanding of the work is one of the main reasons for friction between a consultant and project sponsor. If the consultant doesn’t know what is expected, the end result of the project will be a disappointment to everyone involved. Lack of a clearly defined SOW costs time and money on the frontend, for the effort expended to clarify what is required to execute the project engagement. When the services of a consultant can be clearly defined, it is only then appropriate to bring in a hired gun such as Emirry to get the job done. Finally, plan on a transition for internal resources to assume the role of the consultant and articulate the plan, so that the knowledge transfer can be executed and there is no surprise when it is time for the consultant to end the engagement.
Plan and retain the right skill set and have the consultant available for a finite period of time. An Emirry consultant can bring a fresh and unbiased perspective to address project challenges, and possess a different set of skills and knowledge from internal staff, which can help an organization get over a major hurdle. This is knowledge that can be transferred to your organization during the engagement for ongoing benefit.
Define the skill set of the consulting resource you are retaining. Are you obtaining the services of a professional with expertise in a field or are you retaining supplemental labor to input data into a field? The cost of the different skill sets can be substantial and the success of the project will weigh in the balance. Does the resource need to know how to manage a process, how to handle a specific tool or product? Does the resource need people and/or facilitation skills or does the resource need to know how to interpret project information and data? Once these questions are answered, appropriate resources can be identified and retained to implement the SOW and effectively execute the project.
Finally, functional resources and tools will also need to be identified and obtained that will be required for the consultant to effectively fulfill his duties. These tools include, office space, phone, computer, software, internal computer network access, any specialized training and internal organization orientation. Failure to have the tools available when required to do the job only undermines the organization and drives up costs. The goal should be for the consultant to be productive the day he starts the engagement – not two weeks later! If cross functional coordination is required to obtain the resources and tools for the consultant, the appropriate lead times should be established and the consultant’s start date set as appropriate.
