What Clients Don’t Tell Consultants

Apr 29, 2010 by Phil Simon in Data Integration, Data Migration

I was recently perusing the search terms that people used to find my own personal site and blog and came across the query, “What do clients not tell consultants?”

Perhaps fifteen years ago in grad school, I wouldn’t have had a sufficient answer to that question. After all, what did I know about such things? Well, things change. Hardened by nearly as many years in the corporate and technology worlds, however, I have no shortage of opinions.

In this first in a series of posts, I’ll answer the first question. In subsequent posts, I’ll address related questions in the context of data migration projects:

• What consultants don’t tell clients
• What clients don’t tell each other

Left Unsaid

Like many consultants, I have been left holding the bag many times on data conversion and migration projects. Consider a recent project in which an organization brought me in very late in a project with an intractable go-live date. I essentially had three months to convert essential employee data from a series of legacy systems into the new applications. Sound aggressive? Oh, it gets better.

The data was, quite simply, a mess. No one took ownership over DQ issues; no one could be bothered with their resolution. In other words, forget being proactive. This organization couldn’t even be reactive. For a full account of the project, click here.

To be sure, this project was atypical with respect to its level of dysfunction. Nevertheless, there were certainly parallels between this one and many of the projects on which I have worked. In other words, more often than not organizations fail to tell me about the following:

• the quality of their legacy data
• the completeness of their legacy data
• the number of source of legacy data (including all standalone databases, spreadsheets, paper files, and other homegrown apps)
• the results of previous attempts to cleanse data
• institutional or cultural roadblocks
• people issues related to these issues

Now, sometimes this is intentional and sometimes the people involved just don’t know. As a seasoned consultant, of course, I know enough to ask these questions before even accepting the gig. Of course, it’s not as if I can administer polygraph test. Ultimately, I have to make an educated decision about whether the assignment is worth taking.

Simon Says: Determining Responsibility and The Consequences of Keeping Quiet

All of this begs the following questions:

• Does a client have to tell its consultants everything?
• If everything is divulged, then is the client absolved from blame if and when things break bad?

The answers, of course, are “no.” However, think for a moment about the consequences of failing to divulge critical pieces of information:

• Deadlines may be missed.
• Estimates on project cost may well fall by the wayside.
• Critical functionality might have to be cut to satisfy a key date.
• Issues may not be identified or addressed in a timely manner.

Considering all of the above, doesn’t it behoove clients to air their dirty laundry to consultants soon as possible? How can consultants be partners when they don’t know all of the facts?

What do you think?

Tags: Data Integration, Data Migration