What’s the difference between a resource and a consultant?
Almost all projects involve phases which have a higher than average workload and suddenly require more resources. When you’re faced with an acute shortage of resources, you may forget the nature of this near-mythical being.
In the imagination of senior middle management, a resource is a machine that converts specs into code. The specifications go in the resource through a hatch at the front, and after some creaking, screeching and clanking a finished code pops out. Such a machine has not been invented, so instead of a resource one must use its closest real-life equivalent, the consultant.
A consultant is a person who studies and forms a logical impression of the specs given to him and uses their skills and creativity to design a code that will approximate to the definition provided in the specifications. Consultants may sometimes emit muttering sounds. To minimize the amount of muttering, follow these steps:
A good consultant is a good listener: the more you talk to your consultant, the better they understand what you want.
A consultant is able to provide tips on improving operational processes. They get very excited when things are done in a smart way.
A consultant doesn’t expect work to be a 24/7 lollapalooza of fun and games. Even the suckiests tasks get done, as long as there’s good communication and any unpleasant business is talked about in advance.
A consultant is also an expert who can be brought into a project to solve a problem that, for one reason or another, cannot be solved by the workforce at hand – or to carry our work so dirty, irksome, complex, tedious or unclear that none of the company’s own employees is willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole. This is something a consultant can take into account. In fact, it’s part of their job.
Our consultants know how to write code and communicate as long as they’re used in an appropriate manner. Our experienced consultants are available through our website. Visit rakettitiede.com to find out more.
Rocket scientist = an experienced consultant
Looking for a good, cheap and immediately available consultant? Let’s have a look at what “good, cheap & immediately available” really mean.
Good = skilled, capable, proficient, talented, competent. The consultant understands the client’s business, produces high-quality code, prepares clear documents and explains how things can be done better.
Cheap = low cost, inexpensive; trivial, insignificant, lowly. The consultant is cheap.
Immediately available = instantly free, at anyone’s disposal, unoccupied. There’s something wrong with the consultant or you’re experiencing a freaky fluke.
An impossible equation.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes – or how to onboard a consultant
Consultants likes to poke about, play around and wallow in the code.
§. Right, so why am I here again?
If you already have an idea about what your consultant needs to do, you should let them know immediately, even if what you’re saying won’t make much sense before they first get to know a thousand other things. It is easier for the consultant to relate any information they receive to a relevant framework if they actually have the framework to begin with. If, on the other hand, you don’t yet know what your consultant should do, let them know that right away, too. The consultant might have some good suggestions.
§. I want it all – and I want it now
The consultant is a professional when it comes to dealing with information overloads. If your documentation is an unsorted mess scattered around the organisation and various email threads, don’t hesitate to let the consultant work the mess out. The consultant is bound to notice any missing information before long.
You can try to sort out some of the mess yourself at first. Just make sure the onboarding process isn’t interrupted by some colleague trying to create the perfect report for a week. Your expert knows what they’re doing. Let them figure things out in a way that’s right for them. You can help them in the process by immediately letting them have access to all the source material.
§. Need to know: everything
This doesn’t mean you need to provide the consultant with the financial review or the staff holiday planner, but all information related to the project should be accessible to your consultant, at least upon separate request.
The assumption that the consultant doesn’t need to know detail X because they’re only doing Y has brought about a multitude of unnecessary problems and delays in the course of history. When it becomes apparent that the implementation of Y is closely related to the nature of X, the consultant shouldn’t need to convince anyone to provide them with the information they need. The fewer mysteries your system appears to hold for the consultant, the quicker they will be able to build the features you need.
§. They’ll ask you when the times comes
You should be prepared to have an answer. When trying to make sense of the flood of information at the beginning of a project, it’s pretty self-evident that not all things will become clear at once. The consultant is not a cassette recorder. When they forget something, they will ask the same question again.
None of our consultants is stupid, so you can safely answer all the questions the consultant asks without having to worry about whether the questions are stupid or not. Usually they’re not.
§. Mi casa no es su casa
A consultant knows a lot, but not everything. The total number of potential technologies that may be used in various coding projects is larger than you may realise. It is likely that your project uses a technology or technologies that the specific consultant you have just acquired may not yet be familiar with. This isn’t a fault but a feature. The rate at which a consultant adopts a technology they have just been introduced to is one of the hallmarks of their professionalism.
§. You can tell me, I’ve heard it all
Sometimes when things take a turn for the worse, some information may get lost and can’t be provided even if you wanted to. If ‘Mari with the red stapler in the basement’ once knew how to do thing Z but was then squashed under a grand piano that fell from the sky, be sure to admit that nobody actually knows about thing Z anymore, no matter how bitter the sting of regret may feel. You can count on a certain consultant knowing about it sooner or later anyway.
§. I wonder how you open this thing
A good rule of thumb is to throw the consultant straight into the deep end, give them some time and leave them to work in peace. In some rare cases, it may appropriate to make the first task a straightforward one: “fix this bug and we’ll go from there.” In general, however, it is best to tackle the main job right away. This allows the consultant to become motivated by the important work they do and prevents them from becoming the project manager’s personal drudge.
The consultant isn’t a toy or a lapdog but useful thing. Don’t hire a consultant to adorn your meetings, but arrange a stimulating space where the consultant can sniff around, poke about, play and wallow in code. This will make sure they stay enthusiastic and perform well. Sitting around doing nothing makes the consultant turn sour.
Rocket Scientists Anonymous discuss (dis)orientation:
“They’d rather transfer the responsibility to a colleague than do it themselves. They gave me awkward looks when I asked for things. Like documentation or tools.”
“They’d be like ‘You know what, maybe Sami would know, or you could ask Mari’.”
“Yeah, that Mari person in the basement, you know the one with the red stapler, she might know.”
Don’t misuse your consultant!
Your consultant is neither a spy nor a saboteur.
A Rakettitiede consultant is particularly motivated to do their work quickly and well and to treat the client with respect – it’s the consultant’s reputation on the line after all. The consultant wants to maintain and improve their skills. Deliberately prolonging or hindering a project would be entirely contrary to what makes the consultant enjoy their work.
Remember that the consultant doesn’t carry the finished project inside of them, so you can’t expect them to provide parts of the project at a steady rate as the project progresses.
Remember that consultants are also human beings. They need the right conditions to thrive. Fortunately, you don’t need to guess what those conditions should be. Just ask your consultant (see check list below).
Rakettitiede consultants are willing and able to tell you how they should be used. The difference between a resource and a consultant is that the consultant tells the client the lay of the land. This allows the consultant to influence the company’s operations for an even better end result. A resource, on the other hand, does as they are told and complains about their asinine boss to their friends over a pint.
One of the most difficult things about consulting (and life in general) is not to tell the clients things they are not prepared to hear. Telling isn’t always necessary. And more often than not, it’s actually a bad thing. If you can make the client realise their problem (e.g. by asking a couple of good questions), the problem turns into action. Another way is to approach the client with a solution, not the problem.
Hiring a consultant is not rocket science!
The compensation is agreed in discussions with the sales representative and the consultant, after which the work can begin. The idea is to do things right the first time: pay more and save money.
Rocket Scientists Anonymous discuss hiring a consultant:
“Consultants are usually hired when there’s a ‘hurry’.”
“Mayhap the hurry comes from using the company’s own, incompetent botchers because using a consultant is considered expensive.”
“Yeah, I can’t wrap my head around the fact that these botchers are always considered so cheap that they can dick about as much as they please but consultants are always expected to produce nothing but perfect results.”
Check these out – it’ll save you time and money!
Starting date?
Who’s the contact responsible for onboarding?
Possibility for remote work?
A workstation?
Tools? Computer, display, keyboard, mouse, cables, software, licences, dongles? For the embedded developer or similar, also the device under development or its development version, debugger, oscilloscope, power supplies, soldering equipment... Few things make the start of a project fall flat as efficiently as the lack of tools!
User IDs and permissions. You can’t imagine how many people screw this up!
Network connection? This has sometimes been missing too!
Access cards and permits?
Who’s the immediate supervisor? Who are the other managers?
Team members?
Who can you ask if there’s something you don’t know?
Project specifications: what do I have to do, why am I here?
Source code? If it already exists.
Documentation? Hoping there is some. Even though there never is.
Peaceful working conditions.
Where can you get food? Where’s the toilet?
Is it possible to work late? Do the lights go out automagically? Can they be switched back on? What about the alarms?
Dude, where’s my car? Why oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?
“No need to love us as long as they fear us.” Anonymous rocket scientist
So long and thanks for all the fish!
A consultant is not a parasite that infiltrates a company and takes the form of its employees. The goal of a Rakettitiede consultant is not to fill all vacancies with new consultants or to demand a ransom for running the company’s vital functions.
Instead, the consultant is like a performance reserve that can be employed and discarded much more easily than an actual employee. After the work is done, the consultant can be shoved out the door with a happy hand wave. The consultant won’t feel bad about this, since they are always aware of the fact that they are just visiting.
However, it’s not uncommon that the consultant is kept in the project even at a later stage due to the input and skills they bring to the project.
Rocket Scientists Anonymous discuss coding:
“The feeling when a new project turns out to be nothing but legacy coding...”
“That’s not to say the code won’t be excellent regardless of the system."
“We provide our clients with specialists that actually take their work seriously. Legacy or not, at the end of the project, you can keep the code.”
Is your project missing the right software developers? Contact our command centre!
Contact us!
Timo Jaakola
Rocket Accelerator
+358 50 540 0230
timo@rakettitiede.com
Marietta Johansson
Rocket Accelerator
+358 40 520 3100
marietta@rakettitiede.com
