234 | Essential Checklist for Successful Engagements with Ed Metera

Welcome to another episode of "The Art of Consulting Podcast" with your hosts, Andy Fry and Cat Lam. As seasoned IT consultants, CPAs, and professional development connoisseurs, we aim to bring you inspiring messages to help you discover the X factor in your professional field, leading to the success you truly deserve in your career and life. Welcome back, the one and only Edmund Metera. Edmund Metera is a senior project manager at CWB Financial Group in Canada. He firmly believes that the keys to delivering successful projects are not only founded upon expert project management and business analysis competencies but on recognizing, tailoring and applying the best-suited methodologies and techniques to suit the unique technologies, constraints and opportunities at hand.

Topic Overview:

• Focus on what a trusted advisor needs when embarking on a consulting engagement.

• Insights derived from Ed Matera's book and his work at processmodellingadvisor.com.

Types of Consultants:

• External Consultants: Advise client organizations.

• Internal Consultants: Advise different business areas within the same organization.

Key Points Discussed:

1. Importance of Deliverable Schedule and Effort Budget:

   • Deliverable Schedule: Highly important.

   • Effort Budget: Less important for the advisor; focus is on meeting the schedule rather than the budget.

2. Project Stakeholders and Relationships:

   • Critical for understanding stakeholder perspectives and pain points.

   • The advisor acts as an advocate for the business within the project.

   • Relationships vary from one engagement to another but are always crucial.

3. Organizational Assets:

   • Includes specialized tools, prior work, and training (e.g., SAP tools).

   • External consultants bring their own assets and tools, which are essential.

Organizational assets are important but secondary to interpersonal relationships and stakeholder understanding.

Episode Highlights:

1. Why Discuss Simple Concepts?

   • Importance of asking the right questions early in a project or consultation.

   • Being mindful and diligent upfront acts like insurance, preventing future issues.

2. Preparation and Diligence:

   • Taking initial steps to understand the project helps tailor the approach.

   • This preparation keeps consultants out of potential pitfalls and allows them to leverage their knowledge effectively.

3. Using a Checklist:

   • Ed discusses a checklist available on his website, processmodellingadvisor.com.

   • The checklist helps in tailoring your approach from one engagement to the next.

4. Resources:

   • The checklist can be found on the homepage of processmodellingadvisor.com.

   • It is also published in BA Times, Modern Analyst, and IRM Connects.

Conclusion:

• The episode delves into the balance between internal and external resources, the critical nature of stakeholder relationships, and the varying importance of schedules and budgets in consulting engagements.

Ed Metera believes that philosophy is loud and clear in Ed's book: Universal Process Modeling Procedure: The Practical Guide to High-Quality Business Process Models. He has taught and mentored project managers and business analysts in best practices for professional organizations such as PMI, IIBA, and CMMI. He teaches IIBA-registered business analysis courses and serves as an advisor to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology's Corporate and International Training department's Business Analysis Certificate Program. He is also the founder of www.ProcessModelingAdvisor.com and a regular BATimes, Modern Analyst and IRM Connects contributor.