High-Value It Consulting: 12 Keys to a Thriving Practice,Contents at a GlancePart I IT Consulting Best Practices
Chapter 1 Evaluate the Current Health of Your
Consulting Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2 Road Map for Building a High-Performance
IT Consulting Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Part II Selling Client Businesses and Engagements
Chapter 3 Implementing a Marketing Strategy . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 4 Account Development Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Chapter 5 The Client Account Pipeline and
the Decision-Making Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Chapter 6 The Client Decision-Making Process . . . . . . . 117
Part III Delivering Client Engagements Successfully
Chapter 7 Pre-Engagement Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Chapter 8 Starting an Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Chapter 9 Maintaining Engagement Controls . . . . . . . . . 187
Chapter 10 Running an Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chapter 11 Testing, Deploying, and Closing
an Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Chapter 12 Working Multiple Engagements
for a Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Chapter 13 Risk Mitigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Chapter 14 Legal Considerations in IT Consulting . . . . . 297
Chapter 15 Quality Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Chapter 16 Celebration, Communication, and Other
Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
ix
Part IV Running an IT Consulting Group or Practice
Chapter 17 The Evolving Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Chapter 18 Financial Management: The Bottom Line . . . 351
Chapter 19 Day-to-Day Management of an
IT Consulting Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Chapter 20 Using Information Technology in
IT Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Chapter 21 Human Resources and
Career Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433