Consultants from it companies are approached because they have special knowledge and skills without which it is impossible to imagine how any full service for software development to order. Among all the knowledge a special place is occupied by those who answer the question “How to spoil everything and what should not be done for this?”.
During the negotiations, even before the start of the project action planning, it is required to reach agreements on several parameters:
- it is necessary to determine the use of understandable to both sides terminology, language (science);
- it is necessary to pass the concept of the word “competence”;
- the problem of the client is the enemy, the consultant can not be the enemy and is responsible only for the competence of these tips.
Classical science identifies the following stages of counseling:
- training;
- statement on maintenance;
- completion;
- implementation;
- action planning;
- diagnostics;
- preparation.
Conventionally, the first two stages can be attributed to the negotiations, it is necessary to reach the same understanding and agreement on them, otherwise the important project of the client will inevitably face dangerous obstacles. Or as one phenomenal strategic consultant said simply and clearly:
“If there is a mistake in the task condition , then there will be a mistake as a result of the task solution!”
At the preparatory stage, it is necessary to collect all available information on the project, to determine the tasks that need to be solved, to initially speak out the wishes and other formal/informal requirements of the client (whether it is the desired timing, similarity and/or difference from the existing products of competitors, the technologies used, the composition of decision-makers, etc.).
The consultant further clarifies the client on what principles will be built further interaction on the project: setting objectives, the order of payments and changes, areas of responsibility and obligations that are assumed by each of the parties, etc.
Having fully passed the preparatory stage with the client, the consultant gets at his disposal all the important information for the implementation of the project and moves to the stage of diagnosis. At this stage, the consultant moves from asking questions to finding answers, and provides a comprehensive number of options for solving the problem by the client. It is absolutely true that the same problem can be solved in several ways, they usually differ in the speed of implementation and the amount of investment required. This stage has much in common with training, where the practice and knowledge of the consultant serve the client and give the opportunity to make the best and at the same time effective decision on the way to solve the problem.
An important indicator that passed the stage of preparation and diagnosis will be the same understanding of the client and the consultant:
- method of achieving the result (from the initial state of things to the final result);
- common understanding of the method and principles of interaction, approved mutual obligations;
- how the end result of the interaction should look like;
- how things stand at this point in time.
Speaking about the effective interaction between the client and the consultant, it should be understood that efficiency is the absolute ability to create results, applying efforts in the right direction (results achieved in the right way). It is this ability that ProSofta considers to be the basis for the formation of mutual trust between the consultant and the client, which in turn contributes to fruitful interaction.