Cully Perlman posted about hiring project management consultants today. Some of the benefits cited include:
1. Bringing in someone from the outside helps clarify what you may already think is clear.
2. Paying someone to work just on process improvement will get the job done faster.
3. Bringing in someone that isn’t assigned other projects will allow that person to focus, and thus allow them to be more effective.
4. Another set of eyes and experiences that will help strengthen the experience of your current PM organization.
5. You may just have your next project manager already working for you.
Another huge thing that an outside project management consultant can provide is a customized methodology that works for your organization, and is repeatable for all projects. Walking a team through a methodology and refining it as you go can be extremely valuable for conforming it to the culture and ensure usability and buy-in.
One thing external consultants can run into is the “we didn’t make it here” factor. To me, it’s critical that the consultant not dictate processes, but instead help the teams formulate their own. It may be that the consultant presents several ways to approach an issue and leaves it up to the organization to choose which provides the best starting point to start the customization process from.
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