1. Is Your Consulting Project Yours or Theirs?
How do you know your project is going well?
Unless you had a very clear picture of what the result should look
like, it can throw you into a very uncomfortable place of loss of
control. You and your consultants should be very clear about the
results of your consulting project evaluation. At the same time, as
you move through the process, there should always be clear
communication of unexpected discoveries along the way.
If all goes well, your process of evaluation will sit in a
"comfortable chair." So, sit back and let's go through this.
Important information to know about your consultants
Accord to ItIsTime, a management newsletter, there are specific
skills you should look for in any consulting firm whether it is a
large job and large firm or small job and small firm.
These are the secret ingredients, according to the newsletter,
that will most likely result in a successful relationship.
• When you are conducting your first interview, do they show
respect for your needs?
• Do they demonstrate creativity in their approach to your
problem?
• What was the level of communication when you contacted
the company.
• Did they return calls or follow-up promptly with ideas?
• Do they show vision and see possibilities on how to remove
obstacles in the project?
• Is there a good relationship developing with your staff or
other clients and customers?
• How well do they demonstrate leadership?

2. • Are they flexible and willing to change requirements?
We will break up this post into two parts: Onsite project
evaluation and off-site project evaluation.
Onsite:
Ask yourself some hard questions: Is your evaluation based on
the results you received or the results you wanted but didn't get?
Were the results you received what you wanted? Was it better
than you expected or were your expectations realistic?
In a report written in Forbes Insights, many executives responded
to these questions with answers that their consulting projects
were a success. Yet, there was a question, though, that their
level of satisfaction came from complaisance and that they did
not challenge or participate in defining and monitoring the
process and accepted any result as a success.
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Based on the results of the report, only half of respondents said
they would use the same consultancy company again even
though 92 percent said the projects were successful. Based on
this report, it doesn't add up. If half said they wouldn't use the
same company, but most said the project was successful, then
someone was not doing his homework.
This is where companies can get into trouble. The secret to a
good evaluation is knowing your project and not allowing the
results to be defined by someone else, especially your consulting
company.
Managing the scope of your project is among one of the most
significant challenges for executives. Although the outset of the

3. project is critical to success, according to the report, only half of
executives worked with consulting firms on the project’s strategic
direction before starting work.
Very often "change management" capabilities are flawed. Too
often the consulting presentation is limited and the consultants
leave the execution to the client. From the consultants
perspective, the survey revealed, connecting with internal teams
and management is among the top five challenges for consulting
firms. Here again, results are lacking clarity.
Collaboration and the Secret to an On-site Evaluation
To get the most out of your evaluation, your knowledge about
what works and what doesn’t, your questions and concerns, and
your thoughts about how to best manage the evaluation have a
key role to play as the evaluation plan develops and the project
moves forward.
This role continues as project gets going. The consultant you
work with should be willing to include you in the analysis and
interpretation. Such an approach will result in deeper answers to
the evaluation’s key questions. It is equally important that in a
collaborative approach, the ownership of findings is shared. You
will understand the report you get at the end of the project
because you had a voice in shaping it. With an approach agreed
upon by both parties, you will have a better understanding and
confidence to implement the findings.
Collaboration is the key to make the report something you can
work with. When starting to work with a consultant and to find
out about their approach, you will want to talk to some of their
previous clients.

4. Asking questions early on helps you to gain insight into a
potential consultant. Asking how the consultant sees working with
you will tell you a lot about how this person sees their role.
Program managers may be best served with a report that
emphasizes how an initiative was deployed. Your development
group may need one focused on outcomes. Also, timeliness of
reports is just as important. Getting reports in real-time lessens
surprises sometimes found too late. Also, reports along the way
breaks the content of such a report up into manageable chunks,
and generates excitement among stakeholders. A consultant who
expects to submit only a final report may not understand this
value.
Off site Consultants
There are times when you may need to send consultants to an
offsite to do their work. That can be challenging as evaluating
their work can be complicated. How do you keep tabs on their
performance when they're out of sight? Here are some tips from
experts.
In the current work environment when employees are working
anywhere in the world, it is difficult and sometimes complicated
to get an assessment on how a project is progressing, according
to an article in TechRepublic, How do You Evaluate an Off-site
Consultant, by Ellen Birkett Morris.
"At it's core, it’s a communication issue. It’s about knowing how
to stay in touch,” said Barbara Gomolski, an analyst with Gartner,
a business technology adviser based in Stamford, CT.
“Lots of companies mismanage their consultants because they
don’t have a responsible person in place managing that vendor
relationship, and they are not clear about performance metrics,”

5. said Gomolski. “The more clarity there is within the hiring
company, the more likely they are to get the performance they
are looking for.”
How to Get the Best Information from Your Project
Evaluation
The popular view of project evaluation is that it creates factions
and difficulties in the workplace. The evaluation may not be the
end of the project, but in some cases, the beginning. It may
reveal deeper issues within the company that were not visible
before.
If that is the case, it may be necessary to start over with a new
perspective.