Thanks for the matrix. It's all too easy to dragged off at a tangent by management with different requirements when you're consulting. I'm guilty of allowing it myself, so I'm sure little techniques/methods like this will help. Mind you, it would help if the guys hiring me had a really good idea of what they wanted beforehand!
Anyone else started a contract which sounded great, firm ideas in place, scoped out etc, only to find that they really had no idea of what they actually wanted? My current one is real fun at times!
Phil, thank you for the positive feedback on the matrix. I originally designed the matrix to demonstrate to a couple of techies that there was indeed a process, and that success was more about a viable solution than the specific technology most consultants try to sell. That's one of the differences between hiring a Big 5 consultant vs. a contractor, the Big 5 consultant has a more mature, slicker, market-driven approach, while the typical contractor type simple wants to do technology. Saving Changes...
After months of encouraging a virtual team across 4 divisions of the corporation, my Boss says we've assessed a great big stack of tools, templates, processes and procedures, but lack the little plastic thingy that holds all the cans together. I guess I'm not a Big Picture person. What do you use to hold it all together? Saving Changes...
Pat, the little plastic thingy may be a strategic IT plan, project management office and/or portfolio management approach to your IT investments...and they are investments. Perhaps all 3. My $0.02, Tom Saving Changes...
